Title: Hear it from the Grapevine People
Author: WithinLivesDarkness (AO3: Bloody_Jeans)
Rating: K+, possibly T
Full Summary: Jack's staff is sentient. There are so many things wrong with that fact—and it's not just the sexual innuendos that come with. (Or: times of need in which a certain winter spirit's staff has saved his ass. Also, in which everyone has speculated about what it is that makes Jack Frost so everlasting.)
Pairing: Jack Frost/E. Aster Bunnymund (M/M)
Extra Notes: This story is also available at Archive of Our Own. Sorry beforehand for any mistakes; I have no beta except myself.

Hear it from the Grapevine People
PROLOGUE

It was never supposed to turn out this way.

In all the stories, the hero always defeated the villain in the end, even if it took decades for that to finally happen. It was never the other way around. After all, battles were told by their victors.

However, it had never really understood how awful it felt to be on the losing side, whether right or wrong. It used to believe it was right, most likely still would if it remembered exactly what its options were. It used to think that it would eventually triumph over someone it didn't recognize anymore—very familiar, always lingering at the edge of its conscious, but never a full visual.

That was back when it had thoughts and feelings and beliefs.

Back when it had a name.

Now, it was nothing more than a stage prop. Only slightly better than a sweeping broom, though perhaps more useless. It had become an accessory of no actual value to anyone, and it could sense its own failing powers, dwindling away in the past couple units of time—seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months? It couldn't tell exactly.

The only relief there was, was that it could feel nothing else except itself, drifting in an empty void. There was no pain, no happiness, no cold, no warmth—

That is until it suddenly felt.

Something small and alive and precious wrapped around it—her. 'It' was a 'her', she found out.

But what was this encircling the bottom part of her? (What was also strange was the fact she could actually feel again after all this time—five years, to be exact. Knowing the time made her feel happy for some reason, though it didn't lessen the overwhelmingness.)

Curious, she couldn't resist hoping just one last time, gathering her senses and surging them into her face—a face she didn't remember she had before now.

Slowly, her eyes opened...

And met a pair of young brown ones.

END PROLOGUE.

Author's Note: Please don't forget to leave some feedback. Reviews especially motivate me. :)