Dizgirl: Something not DP? Yup. ROTG is my second favorite fandom and I've been sitting on this (and another one-shot I'm also posting today) for a while. I wasn't sure if I wanted to post them yet since I haven't had a beta look at them, but I decided, why not? Let's see what the ROTG fandom thinks of my stuff. :) I hope you enjoy and love!

Disclaimer? See my profile.

Bunnies & Grass Fairies

It was beginning to feel like summer, that small moment when warm became warmer, when the coolness of leftover winter disappeared from the shadows completely, when the sun regained dominance over the night. The blue of the sky had deepened in spring but now it lightened, turning almost white at the edges when you were down south. Delicate seedlings and flowers gave way to stronger, greener plants and the forest was buzzing with the lives that had barely started in the previous season.

Easter had come and gone and Bunny found himself in Pennsylvania, enjoying the beautiful June weather. It really was a wonderful time of the year—not quite at the level of spring, but much closer than the other two seasons. He had come here to visit the Bennett's and after an amusing visit that mostly consisted of Sophie pretending to be a grass fairy by bestowing him with tiaras and necklaces made of the plant, he was now on his way north to enjoy the surrounding scenery.

Or at least that was what he was telling himself instead of the truth. He didn't want to admit that he was actually checking on Jack on Jamie's behalf.

The young boy had watched Sophie bedazzle Bunny with grass and clumps of dirt, during which he had mentioned the winter spirit had been by two days before and that he was worried for him. Apparently Jack had seemed tired and had difficulty concentrating on what Jamie was telling him. He usually didn't come by this far into summer and when Jamie asked why, Jack didn't give him a clear answer. He also scarfed down two whole sandwiches, which per Jamie was highly unusual for Jack who normally declined anything more than a snack. Though Bunny couldn't say any of this was enough cause for alarm, he did promise Jamie he'd check in on the Guardian of Fun on his way to North's.

And that led to him now standing on the edge of Jack's lake, enjoying the scenery but finding a distinct lack in winter spirit. There wasn't even any ice on the lake so he had no idea if Jack had gone this direction or not. He wandered around, his keen nose searching for the familiar scent of snow and icy air that clung to Jack and caught a whiff of it on the breeze. He followed that north, weaving his way between trees as it took him further into the woods.

He didn't hurry, telling himself there was no need to worry, and instead focused on the warmth of the sun filtering through the canopy above and the rich smells of the undergrowth coming back to life beneath his feet. The pleasant scents and sounds of summer were so strong and it felt so good to be running just for the fun of it, that Bunny almost didn't catch Jack's scent veer away as he bounded along.

He stopped abruptly, skidding across the decayed leaves from the previous fall and sniffed around for the out-of-place smell of winter. It led him to his right and he wandered among the trees and bushes into an area where the flora grew much thicker. Deep shade covered the ground and he found hints of frost and snow within the little copse. That could only mean one thing: Jack had to be nearby.

"Frost?" he called softly, his green eyes wandering up and down as he slowly spun on the spot. "Where are ya?" Nothing but the chirping of birds overhead and the swaying of leaves broke the silence. Jack wasn't one to miss an opportunity to chat with him if he was out and about, unless…

He stood up on his back feet and said loudly, "I just came by because Jamie said you were in the area. If you try to pull anything on me, I will hunt you down and take you to Tooth Palace so all the little sheilas can ogle over your teeth for hours!"

The threat hung in the forest air, but no one or thing responded. Was he wrong? Was Jack not here? He crouched down to the ground and studied the delicate frost that was starting to melt in the warmth. He was just about to accept that Jack had moved on when something moved out of the corner of his eye. He looked up and saw a pale foot sticking out from under a bush in front of him. He stared at it, easily recognizing the pale skin and the ragged cuff of brown pants.

With a baffled expression he hopped over and stood up to peer over the top of the bush. There, halfway under the leafy plant with his back against a nearby tree was Jack. He was curled on his side, his knees almost to his chest and staff tucked securely between his legs and arms. His eyes were closed and breathing even and slow. Bunny raised an eyebrow. What was Jack doing sleeping out here?

"Frostbite?" The boy didn't so much as twitch at the sound. His face remained slack and body still. Clearing his throat, Bunny spoke louder, "Hey, Jack. Jack!"

One of Jack's hands tightened around his staff and his eyes opened blearily. He blinked several times before his gaze wandered up towards Bunny. He stared at his fellow guardian groggily for several seconds and then seemed to recognize him. "Hey..."

"What're ya doing sleeping out here?" Bunny asked as Jack let his head roll back onto its side. It seemed to take several moments for Jack to process what he had asked.

"Hm...?" He looked up at Bunny again. "What's...wrong with...that?" He stretched out as he asked the question, his limbs extending in all directions before curling back in on himself.

"Nothing exactly," Bunny replied, watching the boy in bemusement. "Except it's becoming summer and things are gonna warm up fast." Jack didn't seem to hear him, his eyes falling shut again and body relaxing. "Eventually you're gonna get hurt lying around here…" The boy still didn't respond. His previous irritation returned and Bunny moved around the tree and bush so he could get closer to the winter spirit.

He bent down next to the boy and was about to speak again when he saw the glimmer of sweat across his pale forehead. He examined Jack further and noted that the frost that usually littered his sweatshirt had vanished and the boy was definitely sweating. "What did I tell ya, ya gumby?" He grumbled. "You can't be out in this heat."

He grabbed the boy's shoulder with a paw and shook it. Jack groaned quietly and reopened his eyes. "Whu…?"

"You feeling okay there, icebox? 'Cause you look like you're melting."

"'M fine," Jack wriggled until he was on his back and rubbed a hand across his forehead. "It's kinda warm though..."

"That's what I was saying," Bunny rolled his eyes, unable to decide if he was amused or annoyed with the strangely sleepy Jack. Now he understood why Jamie had found his behavior so odd. With a sigh he repeated his earlier question. "What're you doing out here?"

"Jamie…" Jack replied, his hands now over his eyes. He rubbed them and then squinted up at the Guardian of Hope. "What day is it?"

"June 2nd."

"June?" Jack's eyes widened and he began to sit up. "It's June?" He paused, freezing halfway between lying and sitting. "Oh wait; it was May so it's okay." He flopped back onto the ground.

"Right…" Bunny ran a paw over his ears. "Okay, I think it's time to get you somewhere cooler."

"It's fine," Jack said. "It's just…just my time of the decade…." He giggled and then flung an arm up at Bunny, causing him to jerk back to avoid being smacked. "Hits you randomly and you just gotta take it. You know. Bunnies do it too, right?"

Bunny grabbed the flailing limb and pushed it back down onto Jack's chest. "Do what?"

"Hibernate."

The anthropomorphic rabbit paused and gave Jack a critical look. "….You're hibernating?" Bunny had never known Jack to do that. Granted, before two Easter's ago, when Jack wasn't one of the Guardians, he had never paid close enough attention to notice. But that still included a summer of Jack continuing to go about his business and visiting him during both of their "time offs". He hadn't hibernated then.

"Yeah…yeah," Jack was fingering his sweatshirt. "I…well, not now. I'm gonna…" His brow furrowed. "No, I'm supposed to, but I don't want to." He looked up at Bunny with a scowl now clearly on his face. "I'm not gonna hibernate. I don't want to."

"You…" Bunny was still trying to process this news. "Do you normally hibernate?"

"Mmm…I dunno, sometimes," Jack rubbed his eyes again and then yawned widely. "Every once in a while. I think after I do something big."

"Something big?"

"Like…" Jack waved a hand in the air. "Like Easter and Pitch."

"But that was over a year ago," Bunny told him.

Jack nodded sloppily. "Didn't wanna do it. No hibernating… so I didn't. Just said no."

Bunny's eyes swept over him once more, noting the beads of sweat continuing to form across his face and the pink rising in his cheeks. "That can't be good for you."

"Was gonna do the same this year…" Jack rambled on, oblivious to his comment. "Didn't wanna be out for the…the whole summer." He yawned once more and rubbed a hand down his face. "Got people now," he mumbled.

Once he deciphered that last comment, a small smile grew on Bunny's face. Jack had only been with them for a little more than a year and there was still a lot that they didn't know about him. One thing that was becoming painfully clear, though, was just how alone he had been prior to that. Even now, the boy struggled to recognize that he wasn't still alone, so to hear him say that made Bunny very happy.

"Yer right," he told the winter spirit. "You do." He then moved around so he was on Jack's side and scooped him up off the ground. Jack gave a start, almost causing him to drop the boy, his blue eyes snapping back open.

"What? What're you doing?" Jack pressed a hand against Bunny's chest and pushed weakly against it.

"Taking you to the pole. You need to be somewhere cooler than here."

The boy stopped moving and blinked several times, obviously struggling to comprehend him. Then he said, "Snow would be good…"

"Thought so," Bunny smirked. He turned to leave, only to have Jack begin wiggling in his arms again.

"What now?"

"My staff…!"

Bunny stopped and turned back to pick up the weathered crook. He twisted it up so Jack could grab it, which he did so with a happy sigh. He then tapped the ground and dropped both of them into a tunnel. Now out of the warm forest, he swung Jack around onto his back and took off in the direction of the North Pole.

"What were you doing sleeping in the forest anyway?" he asked the boy as he ran. "Shouldn't you have headed to one of the poles?"

"Yeah," Jack mumbled, his one arm wrapping loosely around Bunny's neck. "Was trying to…couldn't get there. Was just taking a nap so I could…"

Bunny's expression turned exasperated. "Glad I went by Sophie's then. Otherwise I wouldn't have ever headed your way."

"Sophie's a grass fairy," Jack informed him.

With a roll of his eyes at the subject change, Bunny replied, "I know."

"Jamie makes good sandwiches."

"I'm sure he does."

"Are there real grass fairies?"

Bunny couldn't help but chuckle. "You have no sense of linearity when you're tired, you know that?" Jack mumbled something incoherent before sighing softly and hugging his neck closer.

Bunny tried to make his tunnel open as close to the front doors of North's home as he could. Despite this, he still had to walk through the frigid arctic air with the bringer of cold himself slung across his back. Bunny shivered violently as he hopped his way through snow drifts, grumbling under his breath the whole way. He sighed gratefully when he made it through the doors. Kicking them shut behind him he made his way towards North's office, switching Jack from his back to his arms again.

The winter spirit seemed to have fallen asleep along the way, his body limp except for the grip he had on his staff. He had stopped sweating as far as Bunny could tell, though the pinkness remained in his cheeks. Making a note to do something to leech the rest of the heat from the boy's body later, he reached North's office. He knocked on the door and after hearing North's assent, opened it.

"See? This is good thing about knocking," the man began even as Bunny was pushing it open. "I have time to move tin man soldier…" North was not looking in his direction, instead gesturing at a row of said toys in ice form on his worktable, "before you come and crash them all!" He then looked over at him, his blue eyes widening in surprise before sweeping from Bunny to Jack in his arms.

"Bunny! What has happened to Jack?"

"'Parently he's hibernating," Bunny looked down at the winter spirit, whose face was blank in sleep, with a mildly annoyed look.

"Hibernating?" North moved over to him and studied the boy, his eyebrows pushing together. "I did not know he did this."

"Neither did I, mate, but it's a good thing I found him when I did because the kid would've melted where he was trying to sleep."

North ran a hand through Jack's hair, his eyes on his slightly flushed face. "Where was that?"

"North of Burgess." Bunny shifted the boy. "He's not heavy or anything, but do ya have a place I could put him down?"

North nodded and gestured for him to follow out of the room. "I put together guest room for him. He has not used it yet. Now is perfect opportunity."

Bunny followed him down a hall and to one of the elevators, "Jamie mentioned Jack had gone through there and didn't seem to be himself. Now I know exactly what he meant. The kid's got the attention span of a goldfish right now."

"Jamie?" North turned towards him as they stood in the elevator with a confused expression.

"Nah, Jack," Bunny corrected.

"But you said he was hibernating…?"

"He is, or he's starting to," Bunny shrugged. "I don't know, mate. He was almost completely out of it when I found him and just said it was his time to hibernate. Said he should've done it before but resisted because…." He paused as another small smile crossed his face. "'Cause he wanted to be with us." North's eyes fell back down to the sleeping boy, his face turning thoughtful before smiling.

"And probably because he's as stubborn as mule," Bunny added, his smile turning into a smirk.

"Yes, that is our Jack," North nodded, chuckling. He then led the way down another hallway, up a staircase to another floor that the elevators apparently didn't reach, and opened a door on their right. Bunny entered and made a beeline for the bed that was against the right wall. He laid Jack on it as North crossed the floor behind him to a large bay window. He opened it up, instantly bringing a chill into the room.

As the draft reached the bed, Jack quietly groaned, his head rolling to the side. His eyes then fluttered open. Bunny shivered from the cold but didn't move as he watched Jack. North joined them and, seeing Jack's eyes opened, leaned down next to him.

"Hello Jack."

Jack pushed his head back away from North, his eyes squinting like he was struggling to see the man. "North? What're you doing here in Penn…Pennsylvania?"

North glanced up at Bunny who just waved a paw back at him. He returned his gaze to Jack. "We're not in Pennsylvania. We're at the North Pole."

Jack's face twisted into one of confusion before he looked past the Guardian of Wonder to take in his surroundings. "What? How did I get here? Did I…didn't I go to Jamie's?"

"Ya did," Bunny assured him before adding sarcastically, "And then decided taking a nap in the middle of a forest that's experiencing summer was a good idea." Jack rolled his head in Bunny's direction, eyes focusing in and out on his face.

"Bunny…" he raised the hand holding his staff and pointed it at the pooka. "You were in Pennsylvania." The staff dipped as the arm that held it shook and thumped against Bunny's chest.

Sighing, he grabbed the staff and pushed it back towards Jack. "Yeah, mate, we were."

"So we are in Pennsylvania," Jack said, sending an accusing look to North.

"That is not at all what I said," Bunny gave North a look that seemed to say 'you see?' "You're at the North Pole."

Jack continued to stare at North with a suspicious expression. "You are not making any sense. What are you even saying?"

North looked back bemusedly and ruffled the boy's hair. "Is okay, Jack. Don't worry about it. You just need to know you are safe."

Jack's face scrunched up but he didn't move away from the man's hand. When North stopped he reopened his eyes, all grumpiness gone from his face. Instead he just looked exhausted. "'Course I am," he mumbled before yawning. "But I can't do that right now…gotta sleep. Sleep for a long time…"

"How long?" North asked.

Jack's eyes slipped closed. "Dunno…couple months. Just…just 'till fall." He rolled onto his side, wrapping his arms around his staff. "Just like a bunny."

North looked up curiously at Bunny who sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Rabbit's don't hibernate, Frostbite—and neither do I for that matter." Jack didn't move, his shoulders relaxed and breathing slowing down. With a flicker of irritation, Bunny gave up on the lecture and sent another look at North, who shrugged in reply. The man stood up and nodded towards the door. Both turned in that direction when a quiet voice called out.

"Then where do all the brown ones go in the winter?"

Bunny turned back around. Jack hadn't moved and, if he hadn't clearly heard the winter spirit's words, he would have assumed he had imagined the question. He opened his mouth to reply, paused, and this shook his head. "You'll have to find out next year, Frostbite. Just sleep."

"Goodnight, Jack," North added, grabbing the door and pulling it shut.

Jack shifted slightly. "Must be the grass fairies…" he mumbled just loud enough for them to hear. North closed the door and glanced at Bunny, curiosity mixing with confusion in his eyes.

"Grass fairies?"

Bunny shook his head and walked away.