Firsts

"The human heart has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed."

Ch 6: Present

It was Christmas morning and Bunny had been sent to find Jack so that the boy didn't miss the festivities. Immortal or not, naughty list or not, Santa wanted Jack's first Christmas at his workshop to be a pleasant one.

The hare rapped on the door to the boy's room, tapping his foot in annoyance when he received no answer. Twisting the doorknob, the Pooka let himself into the room, expecting to find the immortal child still fast asleep like the brat he was. But instead, the bed was empty and quite neatly made. There was a chill in the room, likely coming from the open window next to the bed.

An unexpected smirk of amusement crossed Bunny's lips at the thought of the boy slipping out his window to enjoy the fresh winter morning. Who would have thought E. Aster Bunnymund would ever be thinking fondly of the pain-in-his-tail that was Jack Frost...

A glint from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning around, the hare noticed several strange objects sitting on the side table next to the boy's bed. Ice shards of some sort. Kneeling down, he reached out to touch one of the curious trinkets, but stopped at the sight of the oval-shaped object frozen to perfection inside the shard. An egg. Or, to be more specific, the Easter egg that Bunny had personally hand-painted for him months ago.

The delicate egg was completely protected inside it's icy fortress. Bunny knew it meant something, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what that something was. Glancing into the other two shards, the Pooka found himself staring at a nearly empty bag of dream sand in one, and a silver coin in the other. Familiar gifts from his fellow guardians.

'Hey! What are you doing in my room?'

Bunny shot up straight and twisted toward the window where Jack Frost knelt on the windowsill, icy blue eyes narrowed at him.

'I came to get you, brat. Everyone is waiting for you so that the Christmas festivities can start,' the hare answered, striding toward the door and holding it open for the boy to follow.

Blue eyes darted to the ice shards suspiciously, before Jack hopped down and latched the window. Pausing only to adjust the bag at his side, the frost boy followed the rabbit out the door without complaint.

'Jack, I love it!' Katherine exclaimed, staring in wonder at the miniature ice sculpture in her hands. It was delicately carved into the shape of the girl's favorite animal, a Himalayan Snow Goose.

'It will never melt... well, most likely never melt,' Jack admitted with a half smile, before his gaze shifted to the other guardians. Tooth was cooing over her ice hummingbird, while Sandy twisted and turned his ice horse in silent amazement. Even North seemed fascinated by his gift, an ice sculpture of a train. Well, to be more precise, it was an exact replica of the wizard's favorite toy train that never left its special place on his desk.

The boy took note of his own gifts in a pile by his feet. He'd never gotten Christmas presents before, so today was quite a special occasion for the frost child. His favorite gift, so far, was a silvery-blue snowboard from North. Jack was just itching to take it out for a test flight.

A movement caught the boy's attention and he found himself staring at Bunny. The Pooka was sitting in the armchair closest to the fireplace, silently gazing at the ice egg in his paw. Jack felt a surge of uncertainty as he noted the rabbit's intense focus. It was so strong that he had to look away. His blue eyes fell on the bag of mini chocolate eggs, decorated in Christmas colors, that the hare had given him as a present. Come to think of it, Jack had never actually eaten an egg that Bunny had made. His human friend had given him a few store-bought eggs at Easter (one of which he'd frozen into a permanent memory), but they'd tasted rather bland to him. Perhaps...

Pale fingers untied the red ribbon from the bag, before reaching inside to grasp one of the eggs. Without a sound, Jack popped the forest green egg into his mouth.

Bunnymund was in a state of complete concentration. It had been several millennium since he'd observed an egg so perfectly formed by someone besides himself. There were even delicate shapes etched into its' surface. It was a Christmas egg to behold. To think that this precious carving was formed at the hands of Jack Frost...

WHUMPH!

The hare was jolted from his thoughts by a teenage body hurling itself against him, blue-clad arms latching around his neck to pull him into a VERY unexpected hug. Holding the ice egg firmly with one paw, Bunny found himself wrapping his other arm around the boy's waist to keep himself from tipping over.

'These are amazing!'

Bunny felt his mouth drop open in shock at Jack's words, green eyes taking in the chocolate at the corners of the child's lips. It looked like the boy had decided to actually EAT his present, rather than just freeze it into a statue.

'You liked the chocolate...' the Pooka commented in amazement, his whiskers twitching from the unexpected praise. The rabbit had always treasured the opinions of the people who tasted his creations, but he'd never expected so much as a 'thank you' from Jack Frost.

'Are you kidding? They're even better than Kathy's cookies!' the frost child exclaimed, his blue eyes twinkling with delight.

'I heard that!' Katherine yelled, despite the smile spreading on her lips at the sight of her friend embracing the startled Easter Bunny. The other guardians watched the pair with varying shades of amusement.

'I'm glad you enjoyed your present. I... like your present as well,' Bunny flicked his ears in the direction of the ice egg.

Jack grinned as he glanced down at the gift, then turned his attention back to the Pooka. 'Eggs are pretty much the only thing you like, so I figured your gift had to be an egg. Never thought I'd say this to the Easter Kangaroo, but...'

Bunny immediately frowned at the unflattering nickname, but the sudden press of chocolate-stained lips to his furred cheek froze his complaints to the tip of his tongue. The kiss was followed by a shout of 'Thank you!' as Jack released him and raced back to his spot to grab his snowboard. Moments later, the boy and girl were sprinting out the door to play with their new toys.

'That was so... ADORABLE!' Tooth shrieked, breaking the silence several minutes later.

Her voice jolted Bunny from his shock and the Pooka slowly got to his feet. Tucking the ice egg into the pouch at his waist, the rabbit turned to thank North for inviting him to spend Christmas in Santoff Claussen. The wizard immediately clapped him roughly on the back with a hearty laugh, exclaiming that the Pooka was always welcome to visit.

Bunny nodded and said his goodbyes to the other guardians, assuring them that he would visit again soon. But, for now, it was back to his underground sanctuary to prepare for Easter. Besides, he wanted to find the perfect spot to display his one-of-a-kind ice egg.

...the end...

Note: I have another fic (maybe even 2) in the works. Future fics in this series will definitely explore the Easter Bunny x Jack Frost pairing in more detail. All in all, I'm happy with how this story turned out. I know Jack's quite OC, but I like exploring his more child-like side (including one-sided crushes, innocent affection, and the joy of experiencing a first everything!)