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Part three of the Sophie arc.
Bunny tried to capture the scene in front of him as faithfully as possible on the canvas. Sophie distractedly stirred the fallen leaves in the chilly water of Jack's lake, the late afternoon's light casting everything in warm, golden tones. He told himself he was merely doing this because it made for a beautiful picture and he was fond of the girl. He ignored the small part of his brain telling him he just wanted a memento, for when he wouldn't be able to speak with her anymore. He did not want to think about that right now. He dipped the brush back into the paint.
Sophie had been visiting a lot since he settled here to wait for Jack. It was already mid-December and the winter spirit was yet to be seen. It was starting to worry him. And he didn't doubt it worried Sophie as well. She had been reminiscing about the good times they had together a lot, lately, and Bunny did not like the way she spoke like it was all over. Like she would never get to laugh with the Guardian of Fun again.
"Did you ever know about the time Jack handed out chocolate eggs while wearing bunny ears?" she asked with a fond smile. "I think he was supposed to be you."
Bunny scoffed at that. He knew about it all right. He had made sure to let the kid know what he thought about it.
"That was a sorry excuse of a costume. Didn't look one bit like me. Barely any effort."
"The chocolates were really good." She smiled at him. He sat a little straighter.
"Of course they were good. He got them from me. You won't find any better chocolate than mines, whatever that fool, Cupid, thinks. But he didn't bother telling me he would use them to make fun of me."
"Make fun of you? I thought it was meant to be a homage."
"From Jack Frost? Are you kidding me?"
"I'm not. He likes you a lot."
Bunny scoffed again and turned his attention back to his painting. Maybe Frostbite did like him, but that did not mean he didn't go out of his way to tease him. He had no intentions of getting into an argument over that with Sophie, though. She went back to staring absent-mindedly across the lake, her fingers still playing with the autumn leaves.
"It was the first time Jack was coming to Burgess without making snow for us. I bugged Jamie into cutting some paper snowflakes with me. Jack snowed us how to do it right. He had rainbow hair, for some reason."
Bunny snickered at that. He wished he had seen it.
"Did you take a photo?"
"No. I gave him Jamie's wig. He was dressed up as Jack Frost for Halloween."
"Why Jack Frost, eh? Why doesn't anyone ever dresses as the Easter Bunny? Other than Frostbite, I mean."
"I did it last year, " Sophie said with another bright smile. "I'll made some boomerangs, too."
"And no one told me? Snowflake must have been jealous," Bunny said with a satisfied smirk. He wished he had seen that.
"Bunny...is he ever going to come back?" she asked, biting her lip. Bunny knew why she was wondering that, of course. He couldn't deny that it had crossed his mind that Jack would want to stay away. To avoid the pain of seeing his first believer look right through him. As much as he wanted to go find the kid and drag him here to give Sophie a hug, he couldn't say he would blame him if he didn't come back.
"Burgess is his home too." There was a long moment of silence as Sophie stared at the leaves in the still unfrozen water.
"You'll take care of him, won't you?"
"Jack? I'm going to start thinking you have a crush on him," he said, not really wanting to answer the question. Of course, he'd take care of him. That didn't mean he wanted to say it out loud. To his surprise, Sophie seemed to seriously consider what he said.
"Maybe we all had a kind of childhood crush on him. He was our centuries old friend who could fly and make it snow. It was magical. And a little intimidating. I guess we were all a little star struck. Even Jamie, who considered him his best friend. Maybe especially Jamie. Jack was is childhood hero."
Bunny snorted at that. He doubted Jamie would approve of his sister calling his hero worship a crush.
"Oh? What about me? You don't look too intimidated by me."
"Of course not. You're a fluffy bunny," she answered. She laughed at Bunny's indignation. "So? You'll take care of him?"
He mumbled an affirmation, his eyes trained on the canvas. She seemed satisfied by that, returning her eyes to the lake. She started pulling leaves out of the water and piling them on the shore.
"How's your brother?" he asked. He wasn't just trying to fill the silence. He really wanted to know how Jamie was doing. In his long time as a Guardian, he had a pretty good understanding of what happened when children stopped to believe and how difficult Jamie's particular situation would be. He understood that a lot better than Jack. And he owed Jamie one. The least he could do is make sure he was all right.
"He's doing better. He smiles a lot more, now. He's less confused. And I think he's seeing a girl, but he won't admit it." She pouted at that last point, like she had been trying to get a confession out of her brother and failed.
"That's good," he said, nodding. The last thing he wanted was for Jack to come back and find Jamie all lost and confused. The kid would just blame himself for it. It would hurt enough as it is. "Might be better if you don't say too much about how Jamie was earlier to Jack when you see him, if you know what I mean."
He could tell that she did, in the way she nodded solemnly to him. Bunny put the finishing touches on his painting. A small part of him wondered if Jack would come visit him in the Warrens when Sophie stopped believing. To see how he was doing. The rest of him wanted to throw himself in the lake for wanting him to.
Sorry if absolutely nothing is happening this chapter. I have only one more for this and it should be short (but Jack will finally make an appearance in this arc as more than a subject of conversation). Then I'm likely to disappear for a month, as I said I would. But I'll try to have something for Easter. But don't hold your breath, I have done next to no planning for all the writing I need to do next month and that'll be my last day to do it.
