This was an idea for a one-shot that I got one day! This is a Jack and Bunny centered story which is basically them bonding as friends! Hope you all enjoy, and please feel free to review!
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Friendships are the hardest things to wrap your brain around, because each kind of friendship is different. They can either be pushy, indecisive, or healthy. Some are rocky, and tend to have curves and jagged edges. Once you smooth those edges, though, you can connect through understanding.
Well, it was no wonder the Easter Bunny and Jack Frost never got along. Things between them were always edgy. Winter and spring were complete opposite seasons. Not to mention their greatest brawls during the Blizzard of '68... and the Paint War of '92... and the Snowstorm of 2000. Those and additional events left behind a scar that won't heal, and that scar kept opening. Each and every day the two found another reason to be mad at each other.
In the next Guardian meeting, the five once again gathered in North's workshop, talking about their jobs or anything strange they may or may not have seen. Jack Frost was bored out of his mind as usual, twirling a snowflake in the air. He'd mostly tuned out everything, when the conversation turned for the worst.
"So, Bunny, what have you been up to?" North asked curiously.
Bunny folded his arms, his expression stern and jaw locked. "Not too much painting, since someone here decided to freeze my dye river again!"
"Not this again..." Tooth muttered, placing a palm on her forehead and shaking her head impatiently. Sandy, not wanting to hear this conversation, formed sand ear muffs and placed them over his head, drowning out the noise. He smiled and gave thumbs up to Tooth. Tooth pouted and mouthed one word that looked like, "Sandy!"
Sandy simply shrugged, a smirk on his face.
"I am not taking responsibility for this," Jack said calmly, crossing his arms over his chest and shifting on the couch.
"Jack..." North sighed.
"Okay, okay, so I did it," said Jack. "but it was just for a bit of fun."
"Uh huh! That's what ya always say!" Bunny shouted. "It's always for the sake of fun, but don't ya ever consider my feelings?!"
"It's not my fault! You always see the bad sad of winter. The kind that's cold and... and dark!" Jack stammered, his arms flying in exasperation. "You don't hang out with the children every day in the snow, having snowball fights. You always complain, and you're always angry. You want to know what I think? I think you don't know how to have FUN."
"What you think is fun and what I think is fun are two completely different fun's!" Bunny argued.
"Boys calm down," North intervened, pressing his fingers on the bridge of his nose.
"Oh, I'll calm down after JACK apologizes."
"I've got nothing to apologize for!"
"You froze my river!"
"I. Don't. Care. About your stupid river!"
"That's it! You're a selfish brat! You can't even be responsible for five seconds! I don't know why Manny chose you to be a Guardian!"
"Bunny, Jack, that's enough!" North bellowed. His booming voice pounded off the walls and echoed off the walls of the workshop. Some yetis nearby tensed and turned to the scene unfolding in the globe room. The two turned towards North, and both paled a little at the sight. North was panting heavily, his face matching the colour of his red coat. Sandy's mouth formed an 'o', and knew they were in trouble, even if he couldn't hear anything. Tooth had her hands over her mouth.
North was growing impatient. He reached into his coat and pulled out two shackles which were connected by a long chain. "You two will learn to tolerate each other, and I feel there is no other way to enforce this," He clamped one shackle on Jack's left wrist and it shrank to fit Jack's size. The other shackle was slapped on Bunny's right wrist. "You two are to be chained together until you both learn to behave like friends!" North had a smile on his face.
Jack wasn't smiling.
Bunny definitely wasn't smiling.
Jack's jaw had dropped to the floor and he attempted to freeze off the shackle, but it simply melted. Yelping at the sudden heat on his wrist, Jack stopped immediately.
"Nice try, Jack," North chuckled. "but these shackles are ice-free. I designed them myself for this specific reason! Boomerangs will not work either, so do not even try!"
"I'm starting to like your idea for once, North," Tooth approved.
Sandy nodded, pulling off the earmuffs.
"I hate this idea." Jack murmured.
"Not more than me you don't." Bunny argued. They had their backs turned to each other.
"So unless you two are going to make up," North said, very pleased with himself. "You're stuck with each other. Meeting concluded."
Tooth said her goodbye and flew out the window. Sandy put on his dream sand goggles, and soared in his plane after her. Jack and Bunny protested with North, begging him. They tried to tell him that they'd stop fighting so he'd let them go. When North ordered the yetis to kick Jack and Bunny out of his office, the two landed themselves in the globe room. They sat on the floor, backs facing each other, not saying a word.
"This stinks," Jack pouted after a few minutes of silent boredom. He spread out on the floor, the shackle banging his wrist and clanging.
"You're telling me," Bunny grumbled. "I'm chained to the most annoying and immature winter spirit on the planet."
Jack growled. "Yeah? Well I'm chained to the grumpiest Easter Kangaroo alive."
"I'm NOT a Kangaroo! How many times must I explain this?! Easter. Bunny!"
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that."
Bunny shot Jack a glare, and they went back to their resentful silence.
"Come on," Bunny grunted, standing up. "Whether we like it or not, we have ta pretend we like each other for... Who knows how long? So, let's go ta the Warren. I've got eggs ta paint."
"Yeah, well I have snow to spread! I can't just ditch my job!" said Jack.
"Ya can, and ya will, just for a little while," said Bunny. "Then ya can go and spread that freezing cold snow with your magic stick."
"It's a staff, and I'm not moving."
"Okay, suit ya self." Bunny bent down and picked up Jack, throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He narrowed his eyebrows in suspicion, surprised at how light Jack actually was. He wondered if Jack had ever had a decent meal in his life...
Wait, was this feeling... concern?
Concern for Jack Frost?
Bunny scoffed.
Pfft, no way.
Bunny tapped his foot on the ground, and a tunnel opened up in the workshop. A struggling teenager on his back, he hopped into it. When it closed a flower grew, the only sign someone ever was there.
North walked into the globe room, about to check the axis and rotation to make sure all measurements are accurate. He then bent down to the floor and examined the purple flower peeking through the floorboards. He frowned.
"BUNNY!"
"What do you do for fun around here?"
"Nothing you find fun."
"Then that's nothing fun."
"Leave me alone, Frostbite!" Bunny demanded.
Jack rolled his eyes. "I'd love too, but we're chained together, remember?"
A low growl rumbled deep in Bunny's throat. Jack was a little startled. Sure, Bunny looked like a Kangaroo, but he did act like a rabbit a lot. He didn't even eat MEAT. He was a complete vegetarian. Jack wished Bunny could see the fun in snow, and maybe become more of a Bugs Bunny character than an Easter Scrooge character. Though he did look like a "Bah humbug!" kind of guy.
"Okay, I can survive this," Bunny muttered to himself, grabbing some paint and a brush. He sat down on a mossy rock, and Jack sat on another. The chain was just long enough to reach.
For the longest time the two said nothing. Jack was tapping his foot on the soft grass, and his fingers on the rock. Bunny was intently painting, his right hand holding the egg, and his left the brush.
"Wait, you're left handed?" said Jack. "Or left pawed?"
"Mhm," Bunny hummed. "I get straighter and longer strokes with my left."
"Hm." said Jack. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought and glanced over to the frozen river. It was thawing, but not fast enough to speed up production. Many eggs were sitting waiting to be painted. That was a LOT of eggs. Jack's face lowered and he stared at his feet.
Now he felt guilty.
Jack sighed and looked at Bunny. "Sorry about the river. I don't know what I was thinking." He apologized sadly.
Bunny's eyes were filled with mixed emotions, but the dominating one was surprise. "Gah... It's alright. It'll thaw. Unless you can speed up the process."
"Can't melt ice," said Jack disappointedly. "To do that I'd have to be a summer spirit."
Another awkward pause.
"Soooo... can I help?"
"What the- No!"
"Why not?"
"Because... because I don't need ya help!"
"You're just afraid that I might be a better and faster painter than you," Jack taunted, a smirk growing on his face.
"Are you challenging the Easter Bunny ta an egg painting competition?" Bunny asked.
"Maaaayyybe."
"Oh- ohhh so this is how it's gonna go. Then you, mate, have a death wish." Bunny warned.
"Is this happening?"
"Oh it's happening." Bunny sniggered. "Prepare ta get melted, Frostbite."
"In your dreams!"
"Phew! I'm done, Bunny!"
Jack stood back and admired his artwork. "That's a lot of eggs." The lines weren't exactly as straight as Bunny's; they were a little shaky. However, each egg had its own unique design. No easter egg was the same. They had beautiful shining colours of not just blue, but green, yellow, and even pink.
"Take a better look, kid."
Jack glanced to the right and saw that Bunny's pile was way larger than his, and a LOT more professional. Jack groaned, knowing he had lost. "Awww! No fair, you've been doing this for centuries."
"Hey, you challenged me," Bunny reminded Jack. "It's your own fault ya lost." Curious, Bunny bent down and swooped one of Jack's decorated easter eggs. This one was striped in curves all the way around, in the colours of lime green, blue, yellow, and pink. Besides the smudges between the lines, they looked all right.
"These ain't half bad, Frostbite," Bunny admitted.
Jack perked up immediately. "Really?"
"Really. Where'd ya learn ta paint like that?"
Jack beamed at Bunny. "I've had a lot of practice from snowflakes. You see, I can't make two snowflakes the same. Each one has to be unique," He formed a snowflake in his hand, and Bunny had to admit that it was beautiful. It was delicate and soft. The snowflake landed on Bunny's nose and he rubbed it.
"For a long time, people shrugged me off as an expression," Jack muttered gravely, hugging his knees to his chest. "and they take advantage of my snowflakes. No one ever appreciates them."
Bunny grieved and heeded Jack. The poor boy looked depressed, like he was reliving a bad time in the past. Bunny could barely survive those lonely years before he became a Guardian without his own kind to serve as company. How did Jack make it through 300 years of being alone?
Wait a minute.
Jack only did this stuff to annoy Bunny because he craved attention. Now that he had someone to turn to, Jack felt the only way to get Bunny's attention was to do something he didn't like. Jack was immortally a child, Bunny realized, and children wanted to be cared for. They wanted acknowledgement.
They wanted to know that they still existed.
Bunny kicked himself in the shin and hissed.
"Uhhh, Bunny? You okay?" Jack asked warily, tilting his head.
"Yeah, I'm all right," Bunny grumbled, feeling guiltier than ever. Suddenly, Jack gasped, and then slapped his head in frustration.
"Dang it! I was supposed to play with the Burgess kids today!" Jack groaned. "Now how am I supposed to fly there with you attached to me?"
"I can take ya there, mate."
Jack blinked. "Y-you will?"
"Why not? Been meaning ta see that ankle-biter, Sophie for a while now. No time like the present." Bunny said. He tapped his foot on the ground, and a tunnel cracked open. Jack grinned and flew into the tunnel, accidentally dragging Bunny along headfirst into the hole. The hole was about to close, but Bunny's feet were still sticking out of the ground.
"Sorry!" Jack apologized. Then he sniggered. "Now I know why rabbit's feet are lucky."
"Get me outta here, Frostbite!"
"See him yet, Claude?" Jamie Bennett yelled from the ground. One of his friends, Claude, had climbed up one of the highest pines to see if he could spot Jack coming. Claude glanced around, squinting against the sun. It was now 4 o clock. Jack was later than usual.
"Keep looking!" Jamie suggested for the fifth time.
Now a twelve year old kid, Jamie Bennett still believed in the Guardians with all his heart. Jack had regularly come to visit him. But now that Jack was late, Jamie was starting to get a bit worried. Jack was NEVER late... well, at least when it came to the children. Give or take a couple hundred Guardian meetings, Jack was always on time.
Jamie sat down in the powdered snow and sighed. He wished the snow were fresh; it had been from two days ago when Jack had given them a snow day. But it wasn't as good as before.
"I don't think he's coming," Claude called down. "I would've seen him by now!" He began to scale down the tree.
"Do you think something's going on?" Pippa quavered worriedly, pulling her winter hat lower over her ears.
Jamie wondered that too, when suddenly he felt a rumble in the ground. Just as Claude was about to jump down from the bottom tree branch, a hole opened up. Claude yelled and disappeared into it. He heard two other grunts when Claude landed on them, and Jamie brightened.
Claude crawled out of the hole, and Jack and Bunny stuck their heads out, rubbing them tenderly.
"Jack!" Jamie cried. Claude blinked.
"Well no wonder I couldn't see him! He wasn't even in the air!" Claude marvelled.
Bunny and Jack crawled out of the tunnel, and it closed behind them. The chain clattered to the floor, and the kids noticed it. They all had looks of confusion on their faces.
"Uhh, why are you two chained to each other?" Monty asked nervously.
"It was North's idea," Jack grumbled. He shook his shackled wrist. "Unless we learn to be friends, we're not getting out."
"Ohhh," Cupcake marvelled. "So it's like a bonding thing?"
"Neat-o!" Caleb exclaimed.
"Easter Bunny!" A sudden younger feminine voice cried. Bunny lit up and the two chained victims turned towards the sound. It was Sophie, wearing her fairy wings and Bunny ears. "Hop, hop, hop!"
"Hey, there, little ankle-biter," Bunny smiled, bending down to Sophie's height.
"Jack and Bunny! Jack and Bunny! Snowball fight?" Sophie demanded.
"Yeah, and you guys are going down!" Claude cried.
"Yeah!" Pippa, Cupcake and Caleb chorused.
"Ha! You wish!" Jamie challenged, scooping up a snowball and chucking it at Claude. He fell to the ground with a thump.
"War!" Cupcake declared.
Monty, Jamie, Jack, Bunny and Sophie were on one team, while Caleb, Claude, Pippa and Cupcake were on the other.
"Take that!" said Jack, tossing a snowball at Cupcake with perfect aim. It smacked her right in the head.
"Now you're getting it, Frosty!" Cupcake promised, beginning to form a giant snowball to shoot at him. Jack ducked the snowball easily, but it buried Monty. Jack winced. Monty was okay; turns out he can take a hit.
"My turn!" Bunny announced, taking a snowball. He threw it like a boomerang and it nailed Pippa in the shoulder.
Soon, all of Claude's team were wiped up and pelted by snowballs. Caleb and Claude both raised exhausted hands. "We surrender!" They yelled in unison.
"All right!" Jamie said with victory. He gave Monty a high-five, who laughed nervously.
"Didn't think I had it in me." He stammered.
"Good game, kiddos," Bunny said, shivering slightly from the cold. "It's gettin' late. Jack and I got to get back to the Warren before I bloody freeze ta death."
"Awww," The kids groaned.
"See you later, Jack!" Jamie tackled Jack in a hug.
"Bye!" Monty and the girls said.
"You da man!" Claude and Caleb said.
"Bye, bye, Bunny," Sophie giggled, giving Bunny a huge hug. Bunny embraced it, holding the blond haired girl close.
"I'll see you guys later!" Jack said. He looked at Bunny shiftily, and whispered, "Hopefully without this Kangaroo stuck to me."
"I heard that Frostbite."
Jack shrugged innocently. "Let's go."
Bunny and Jack returned to the Warren after one final goodbye.
Yawning, Jack stretched out his arms as he laid on the grass. Bunny was drinking a cup of mint tea. The river had finally thawed; it looked like Jack only iced the surface. Bunny knew the boy didn't mean any harm now, but that gave Bunny no right to yell at Jack like he did.
"Jack, what I said back at the workshop... I didn't mean any of it," Bunny said. "You're meant ta be a Guardian. I can see it in the way ya play with those kids. You're not selfish, and I guess I got a bit carried away."
"You were right, though," Jack murmured. "I was being selfish. I didn't realize that it would ruin everything. That's all winter does... Make a mess of everything."
Bunny's expression softened. "You don't make a mess of everything. You're a kid too, and kids like ta have fun. It's just who ya are."
There was a heartbeat of silence.
"Bunny, how come I haven't seen more like you?"
Bunny's heart began pounding. "What?"
"You know, more giant rabbits."
Bunny's eyes grew full of resent, and Jack noticed. The winter spirit shifted over a bit, just to be safe. Bunny glared at the bright green grass, thinking about the past.
"It's because there aren't any," Bunny growled. "Pitch wiped them all out. I'm the last one."
Jack stared down at his feet in shock. Tightening his jaw, he took one more look and Bunny, and saw how upset he was. Jack knew he should've stayed silent, but he felt he needed to say something. "Um, I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault." It sounded like Bunny was blaming himself.
"Bunny, it's not your fault either," Jack said. "There's no way you could've prevented something like that."
Bunny huffed a breath, his ears pressed back against his head. "You don't know that."
"Yeah, I do," Jack snapped. Bunny looked up, surprised at the winter spirit's sudden outburst. Jack sighed. "300 years ago I took my little sister ice skating. At least we were going to before she... she went onto thin ice before I could check to see if it was safe. It cracked beneath her feet, and she was scared. I tried to use fun to distract her by telling her we should play hopscotch. I needed her to move a little closer so I could pull her off the ice with this," He gestured to his staff. Bunny was listening intently. "I pulled her off, and she was safe."
Bunny waited.
"But... I wasn't. I fell in instead of her," Jack finished, hugging his knees.
"Mate," Bunny uttered.
"Then Man in Moon said I was Jack Frost... then that was it," said Jack. He glared at Bunny. "I didn't ask for this to happen, but sometimes you can't stop your destiny."
Bunny was still moping, so Jack formed a snowball. "Think fast," He warned, and tossed the snowball in Bunny's face. Bunny brushed off the snow from his face. "See? That was destiny!" Jack said. Bunny only looked annoyed for a few seconds, then he chuckled.
"Ya know, maybe North had the right idea," Bunny admitted.
"Oops, I must've hit you with that snowball too hard."
Bunny laughed.
"So, the groundhog, huh?" He changed topics.
"Uh, Groundhog Day... It's a dumb holiday." Jack grunted.
"Tell me about it. Stupid, bloody groundhog... thinks he can tell me when spring starts." Bunny growled.
"I'll show you early spring!" said Jack, pounding his fist in his palm. "What do you say we prank him?"
"Best idea I've heard all day."
North called the Guardians for another meeting, and it was just after the prank on the Groundhog. North was shocked to see that Bunny and Jack were actually laughing together, and noted the flour and feathers that covered their bodies. He raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Did you see the way he ran?" Jack smirked. "He looked like a chicken!"
"He is a chicken," Bunny joked. "A skinless, featherless one." They both laughed.
"You two looked like you were having fun." North said.
"We were just pranking the Groundhog," Jack explained.
"Turns out ya were right, North," Bunny added. "We do have one thing in common. We can't stand that rodent."
Later, after the meeting, North unchained Jack and Bunny. He laughed to himself, pleased with knowing how well his plan worked. The two greatest rivals could work together, as his little experiment proved. Even those who are complete opposite of each other.
Sooner or later, they will have him to thank.
North entered a room when all of a sudden a bag of flour landed on North's head. North coughed and brushed away the flour from his eyes, but then slipped on some ice and crashed to the floor. He managed to climb up and regain his balance, but saw there was a present on the table. He opened it ominously. It was empty. On the bottom was a note. It read:
Ha! Got you! Have fun cleaning up the mess! ~Jack and Bunny.
North's voice was heard in China.
"JACK! BUNNY!"
From their hiding place, Jack and Bunny gave each other high fives.