Bunnymund sighed when he arrived at the small village where the new winter spirit made his home. It was snowing. Not much, barely enough to cover the ground, but it annoyed the pooka anyway. Not that snow never naturally occurred on Easter, but knowing that this snow was likely caused by the young spirit who should know better made it worse. Bunny wondered if he did it to annoy him. He remembered the storm he had caused the previous Christmas.

He decided, once he was done hiding his eggs around the village, to just go ask the kid what his problem was. If the spirit was purposefully messing with the Guardians, it was time he got a good talking to and Bunny could spare the time to do that even on this busy Easter night.

Hopping to the lake where the spirit could usually be found, he mentally repeated the words he planned to say when he did find him. He would give him a good shake, too. He surveyed the area, initially unable to spot his target. Maybe he left, scared of his anger. Or maybe he was hiding in the bushes, laughing at him. Bunny's eyes narrowed, taking a looked closer.

There was more snow around the small lake than elsewhere around the village. He eventually spotted a dark hide cloak partially covered by the freshly fallen snowflakes. Bunny carefully made his way there, wondering if the boy was trying to hide. What he saw froze him in place and turned his determined anger to panic.

The boy was simply lying on his side in the snow, unmoving and deathly pale. He was partially hidden under the snow that had fallen over him. He must have been there for at least a few hours. His frosted shepherd's crook was barely visible, the spirit's hand loosely draped over it. He looked like the frozen corpse of a child.

Get a hold of yourself, Bunny. He looked pale and cold when you saw him last time, too. He's a winter spirit; of course he's pale as snow and cold as ice.

He took a few slow, calming breaths. Try as he might, he could not recall if the spirit had really looked that much like a kid who died from the cold. It was eerie, seeing him just lie there without moving. He wondered if he was hurt. He couldn't tell, not without brushing off the layer of snow covering him and taking a closer look.

Still trying to calm his rapidly beating heart, Bunny kneeled next to the winter child hand placed a hand on his shoulder to turn him on his back. He almost immediately withdrew it. The spirit was colder than death.

Little mounds of snow fell of as Bunny carefully turned the boy. He was surprised to see the frost disappear from the staff when the pale hand slipped off of it. He was still pondering that when the boy's eyes shot open and he sat up abruptly.

"W-what?"

Bunny jumped back two steps in shock. The boy fumbled to pick up his staff before jumping to his feet as well. For a long moment, both just stared at each other, surprise giving way to confusion. The winter spirit looked perfectly fine, now that he was actually moving. Bunny glared at him.

"What did you think you were doing?"

The spirit raised a dark eyebrow at that.

"You're the one who just woke me up. What did you think you were doing?"

He had just woken him up. The boy had been sleeping. Just there, lying on the ground in the snow like that was perfectly normal. Bunny tapped the ground with his foot, creating a tunnel. He should just leave before he embarrassed himself further. He had eggs to hide, anyway. No time to spend with annoying winter spirits who did not even have the decency to not look like frozen corpses when they slept. He pointed a menacing finger at him.

"Stop making it snow on Easter."

Bunny had just enough time to see the amused grin on the boy's pale lips before he disappeared in the tunnel.


I had been planning on writing a few stories tonight, but some technical problems caused me a lot of troubles and I ended up with not enough time. At least I wrote this one. There's still tomorrow.

Since a few people asked me about possible stories related to the You Will Fear Me arc, I'm going to answer this here for anyone else who might be wondering.

I'm definitively going to go over the Antarctica incident that Jack mentioned to the others in that arc. It should be one of the next few stories I write. I just don't want to rush it so it doesn't end up being just Jack summarizing part of the movie, with the other four kind-of reacting. About Jack actually thanking Pitch, I have half an idea, but it might take a while before it's good enough to be written. I have nothing else planned at the moment that is directly related to that arc (that I can remember. I forget my ideas all the time)

(also, you can find the title of this chapter and the title of this drabble collection in the same small paragraph in this story)