March 20th, the first day of spring. 4 days until Easter, 4 days to put on the finishing touches, the last little painted designs and to choose the perfect spot just under the picnic table where the brightly colored eggs could be found -
Or at least, that was the plan.
But this year, when Bunnymund came up from the Warren with all the preparations, he landed in the park which was decidedly more white then green. Grumbling he scanned the trees around him with narrowed eyes until he spotted the one he wanted. Stomping over, across the crunching snow, Bunny raised one of his large feet and hit it against the tree trunk as hard as he could, sending the vibration up the tree. Snow rained down from the branches along with a snow colored young man. Jack landed on the snow covered ground with a thump, glaring back at the large hare in front of him.
"What the heck was that for!?"
"I thought we agreed, no more frozen Easters!"
Jack stood up and brushed the snow off his pants, retrieving his staff from the ground. Once he'd managed to recover a portion of his dignity, he turned a smirk to Bunny. "Oh come on, it's prettier this way. Besides, the white makes the colors on your eggs pop!"
Bunny narrowed his eyes more, resisting the urge to pounce the little frozen trickster - barely. "You promised you weren't going to do this anymore, mate."
"Yeah, well, sometimes people lie." With those words Jack turned and jumped up, sailing with the cold breeze into the night sky, leaving Bunny to blink with his ear twitching. It wasn't like Jack to be so... well... cold. He usually made smart ass comments, but they weren't generally harsh like that.
Shoving his paintbrush and eggs into his belt, he dropped to all fours and bound off after the winter spirit. He knew he didn't have much of a chance of catching him this late at night with the wind being so strong, but he had a pretty good idea of where Jack spent most of his nights and it wasn't far away. So that would be the best place to start.
Jamie Bennett's house hadn't changed over the years. As the young boy grew up he'd continued to live with his parents, moving his room to the basement due to some other cousin moving in named Economy, or something. It wasn't generally something Bunny or the other Guardians worried about because it was part of the adult world and beyond their scope. As he'd aged Jamie had always remembered them, even building a trapped door into his fence, which Bunny used now to cross into the yard. The old greyhound was gone, replaced with a little black furry thing that barked louder than Bunny had ever heard.
On that night in particular, the little black puffball anklebiter was following Sophie as she busied herself in her room. At the door was the much older and taller Jamie - he even stood taller than Jack now - talking with a young woman with frizzie red hair she tried to keep tied back with a few straining rubber bands. They were losing the battle.
Bunny watched the two talking in hushed voices, lit only by the small light just above the doorbell and next to his mother's empty flowerboxes. The night air was cold, but the two didn't seem to mind as they talked softly and kept glancing away from each other's faces. Bunny wasn't much for human interaction beyond kids, but he knew that look. It was a look quite common across teenage faces when spring came around.
"Well, I'll be," he murmured, careful not to let the two hear him. Instead he ducked back around the house, out of sight and watched with a little smile on his face as Sophie sat at her desk, winding her headphones around her fingers while she talked with her high school friends about what dresses to wear to some spring dance. A couple minutes later he heard the front door close and a car drive off and he knew Jamie was inside. Taking one last glance at the roof to see if Jack was there, he bound off to look for the elusive fool.
Bunny finally found Jack near the lake, sliding across the ice covered water in bare feet as if he were wearing ice skates. The action was strange for the young man, especially considering that Bunny knew it was how he'd died and Jack had his memories back now so he had every right to be afraid of the lake. Instead, it had turned into Jack's other calming place aside from Jamie's roof, where he could spend hours just lost in his own thoughts.
"Kid's in love."
Jack came to a stop and regarded Bunny with an annoyed look. "Yeah, noticed."
"Get under your skin?"
Jack swung his staff at nothing in an absent gesture. "Stupid huh? I mean, it's never bugged me before. How many years have I been messing around with the kids and playing with them every winter and they're kids, they always grow up. Of course he would too."
Bunny hopped closer to the edge of the pond and perched on a frost covered rock, getting as close as he dared to the ice. Jack could float on the air, it didn't matter if the ice cracked under his feet, but Bunny had no intention of taking a frozen bath. "Yeah well, the youngins couldn't see ya before."
Jack rolled his eyes but didn't protest the point.
"Buck up. This'll go for a couple winters and then, before you know it, bam, he'll have kids of his own you can play with. You know he'll tell them all about us, so they'll be able to see you, no problem."
"Right but... it's not Jamie." Jack finally walked off the pound to sit on the rock next to Bunny, leaning against one knee. "I mean... he's the first kid who saw me. You weren't there when it happened but... it was important."
"Still is. To him too, I'd wager. But kids grow up. We're guardians, but that's what we do too. We teach them the lessons they need to grow up. I'm sure his children will be just as important, just watch."
"Yeah..." Jack didn't sound too convinced, but he really didn't have much of a protest either. He'd known this was coming, he just never expected it to be as painful as this.
Bunny frowned at the young man, then reached over and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Come on, no more moping. Now, help me fix this mess and set up these eggs."
"But-"
"No. You don't get a choice in this." With those words Bunny snatched Jack by the arm and hit his food on the ground, dragging them both into the Warren.
Jack didn't complain too much as he helped Bunny round up the rest of the eggs and lead them to their hiding spots. He even managed a few smiles as he helped a few hide up in the trees and under some newly sprouting flowers that seemed determined to grow in spite of his late season frost. By the end of the night he'd mostly forgotten about Jamie and his own angst and set about trying to figure how the large rabbit managed to handle so many colorful eggs and not come out looking like a furry, brightly colored egg himself? Jack's fingers were already turning a bright pastel rainbow.
"How the heck?" He leaned down in the Warren, trying to clean them off in a clear stream while Bunny smirked at his attempt.
"You get used to it, you learn."
"Yeah, next time I'm decorating with white ones."
Bunny chuckled in spite of himself and tossed a white egg to Jack, who managed to catch it and grumbled as some of the color from his fingers still ended up on the egg. Setting it down he went back to washing his hands, again.
"Hasn't it ever bothered you?" He asked quietly, after a few moments.
Bunny shrugged and scratched behind his ear with his foot, attempting to get rid of an annoyance itch that had popped up. "Probably. I don't dwell mate. Ya' gotta learn to not do that. Things change too much to dwell."
"I... want something more constant, I think. Something to hold onto."
Bunny raised his head and an eyebrow. "There is always us."
Jack blinked and looked at the large rabbit and somewhere in the back of his mind something settled into place. Was it really that simple? No... but, maybe?
"Hey... mind if I stick around the Warren for a bit? You know, with the snow melting and all."
Bunny shrugged. "Sure, do what you want." But there was a small smile on those blue lips and that's all the answer Jack needs. The need to dwell on things he couldn't stop from changing was fading already.