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"How did you know you were the Guardian of Hope?" Jack asked on a whim one day while they were working on painting eggs.
"Ah, well that's a long story, quite the downer, really," Bunny shifted uncomfortably, shooting uncertain glances in Jack's direction. The sprite paused his work, twisting to face the Pooka.
"If you're comfortable telling it, I wouldn't mind hearing it," Jack murmured quietly, going back to the frost pattern he was decorating his egg with, giving Bunny the chance to decide without pressuring him.
"If ya really want to hear it, I'll tell you." Bunny finally told him, setting aside the paint supplies and placing his egg where it could easily dry, watching Jack do the same.
It took two hours, but Bunny told Jack everything. About the Pookas, and what Pitch had done. He described how he had managed to escape, ending up on Earth and starting over, the only survivor. He recalled how he met each of the Guardians, how he became a Guardian, and how it had taken him centuries, but he had realized that he had only made it through what had happened to him because of his hope. He had hoped to survive, to win the war. Hoped for happiness, hoped for friends, and had worked to make that hope into a reality. If he hadn't hoped through everything, he would've given up.
Jack listened, intently, with wide eyes from beginning to end. When Bunny finished, there was a comfortable silence, as Bunny picked up his brushes and resumed painting, allowing Jack time to process. Eventually, Jack picked up a paintbrush as well, and they slowly went back to chatting and teasing.
When Jack left later that day, he paused, hugging Bunny briefly and thanking him, before shooting out of the Warren. Bunny chuckled fondly after him, before turning and walking back to his Burrow.
After the two had had their little heart-to-heart, they began growing closer than ever before. Jack visited the Warren so frequently that if any of the other Guardians needed him, they'd check with Bunny before anywhere else. The Pooka had even designated a room for Jack, an open invitation for if the sprite ever wanted to spend a night or two. While Jack rarely took him up on his offer, Bunny knew that his fellow Guardian truly appreciated the proof that he was always welcome in Bunny's home. At Jack's insistence, Bunny had adjusted his magic to allow Jack to use the ancient tunnels whenever he needed.
Aster found that he quite enjoyed Jack's company. The boy was funny, and dorky, and knew how to make him laugh. While the pranks could be annoying to clean up, Bunny quickly found that the boy was eager to help clean up, and had actually improved his pranks over time in order to make cleanup easier- which Bunny greatly appreciated.
After a few months of spending time together, Aster finally realized that they hadn't talked about how Jack knew he was the Guardian of Fun. And of course, his curiosity was peaked. The rabbit spent a few days pondering and theorizing, his thoughts so jumbled that he found himself drawing snowflakes in his sketchbooks, unable to come up with new designs with the question burning in his mind.
It would be a few days, as Jack was incredibly busy. The first snowfall was a few days away, and Jack had a lot of preparations to take care of. While Bunny had never previously thought about it, he was starting to realize that Jack actually took his job very seriously, and put a lot of work into making his season as safe as possible. Of course, he didn't always succeed, and Bunny had found himself comforting the distraught sprite on more than one occasion, but overall Jack was good at what he did.
It wasn't until the fifth day that the Pooka took into consideration that maybe Jack wouldn't want to answer his question. A lot of sprites and seasonal Spirits didn't like talking about their pasts, and it had been centuries before he himself was willing to even entertain the thought of sharing all that had happened to him. Even talking to Jack about it was still painful, as his pain was timeless.
But he didn't want to think about that. Instead, Bunny just decided that he'd ask. Even if Jack said no, there was still a possibility he'd say yes, and Bunny had to try. This decided, he ceased fretting and resumed waiting.
As the days turned into a week, Bunny became impatient. Every day that he waited for Jack to come and visit him, Bunny got more cranky and frustrated. He didn't like waiting. You'd think that centuries of existence would have taught him patience, but that was why he had connections and books. To answer questions. Bunny hated unanswered questions.
Day 9 left Bunny useless. He couldn't function, couldn't think about anything else. He'd been devolved into a whining child, sprawled out on the grass after pacing for hours to work off his frustration. If North had been there, he probably would've declared that the Pooka was pouting. And Bunny would've adamantly argued that that was not the case. Not that he would admit it if it was true.
On day 12, Aster was ready to go out and look for the bloody kid himself. Not only was his curiosity driving him crazy, but he was also worried about Jack. The boy had promised him it'd only take a few days at most, and even if it was going to be longer, Jack had promised he'd check in at least once. Bunny buried his head in his paws. He was sitting at his only table, installed at Jack's request, so the two could have meals together every once in a while. The Pooka had been surprised to find it a pleasant place to sketch, as there was a small window close enough to let in a good amount of fake natural light. He lasted a short few minutes before he finally gave up and stood, reaching for his boomerangs.
He closed the door, turning only to pause, stiffening as his ears twitched, senses insisting that something was off. It took him less than a second to relax, realizing that it was just Jack, noticing the familiar hint of a cool breeze that came with the winter Spirit. His tension eased prematurely however, he realized, as Jack's presence felt weak. He rushed towards the faint indications, finding Jack collapsed on one of the many hills. He scooped the sprite up easily into his arms, rushing Jack back to his burrow, placing the Guardian on the bed in the room Jack had claimed as his own.
"Jack? Jack!" He took a moment to frantically check for a pulse, finding nothing and ending up with cold paws for his trouble. This, of course, was when he panicked. After a minute of trying desperately to rack his brain for any useful information that could help his friend, Bunny tried again for a pulse, only to have bright blue eyes open blearily. If Bunny hadn't been so relieved that there was a sign of life, he would've noticed how there still wasn't a pulse coming from Jack, even as his chest rose and fell to mimic regular human functions.
"Hey Bunny-butt, miss me?" The Pooka let out a sigh of relief, glad that the obnoxious brat was at least feeling well enough to be, well, an obnoxious brat.
"Bloody hell, Jack, did you have to give me a heart attack?" He grumbled, plopping himself on the bed next to Jack, forcefully tucking the Spirit into bed even as he tried to get out of the bed. "You need to rest, you Gumby, you're obviously exhausted from, well, whatever you were doing out there." Jack sighed in defeat, shrugging his shoulders as he resigned himself to his inevitable fate of being coddled by a six-foot-tall rabbit.
"My job," Jack mumbled, to a rather confused Bunny.
"What?"
"I was doing my job," he clarified, trying to keep the slight pout from showing.
"Well, it still seems like you pushed yourself rather hard this year. Just rest, alright?" Bunny stood, meeting Jack's sullen frown with a stubborn one of his own, knowing he had won once Jack flopped back dramatically. "Sleep well, frostbite," he whispered to himself, turning off the light and closing the door to Jack's room, not noticing the slight smile that lit up Jack's face at the insult-turned-endearment.
It wasn't until a number of hours had passed that Bunny realized Jack didn't have a pulse, even conscious. After a few minutes of consideration, he found himself becoming steadily more confused. Spirits, in general, were nonhumans, and fit into one of two types: those who depended on believers, and those who didn't.
The former category consisted primarily of those with their own holidays, such as "The Easter Bunny", as well as those that were featured in folklore and urban legends. Generally, most Spirits that fit the first criteria also fit the second, seeing as most holidays have their own folklore. However, holiday Spirits tended to be a snooty bunch and had insisted that they should be set apart, even as they continue to fight amongst themselves for superiority. While North and Bunny were dissimilar in the first aspect, they actively argued the second point. Neither would admit defeat, even for the sake of peace, meaning that their feud had been going on for centuries and showed no signs of ceasing.
The latter category, those not dependant on believers, was made up of seasonal Spirits, the occasional ghost, and other miscellaneous Spirits. Seasonals tended to be nymph and fairy types, or other Spirits with seasonal powers. Ghosts usually spawned from dead individuals that struggled to find peace, but Reaper-types were tasked with the job of helping them find peace enough to move on.
While individuals in the second group often had similarities to the first, such as folklore (Reapers), the primary difference still lay in the fact that some beings will exist with or without believers. And seeing as death occurs regardless of your opinion on the matter, Reapers will never be out of a job.
That in mind, Bunny easily classified Jack as a Type 1, but the problem laid in his human status. Seeing as Reapers were designed to prevent humans from hanging around after their death, it was unheard of for a human spirit to become a Spirit. Of course, the boy was destined to become a Guardian and defeat Pitch, so gaining Spirit status would've been necessary at the time of his death. Of course, that brought up a detail that unsettled Bunny.
Jack had died.
It took two full days before Jack finally regained complete consciousness. In the meantime, Bunny did his best to care for Jack, reaching a panicked dilemma when he started to question if Jack required food and water to survive. To be on the safe side, he decided to periodically wake Jack up to get him to eat and drink, feeling guilty every time as he watched Jack groggily try and obey Bunny's gentle prompting.
When Jack awoke on the second day, there was no stopping him. It was as if his health bar had hit full, and full he was. Full of energy, and full of himself. The second Jack was awake, Bunny knew. The eager sprite shot from place to place, talking a mile a minute. It took Bunny to come up with an accurate comparison, even as he was filled with a sense of deja vu. Finally, he recognized the behavior; it was not unlike Tooth.
The knowledge that Jack had most likely died before becoming a Spirit made Bunny hesitant to ask. Not any less curious, but hesitant. He had a feeling that the memories were most likely painful, and he hated to be the one to drudge up that sorrow.
He debated for almost two weeks after Jack fully recovered from his draining beginning-of-winter duties, before finally pushing aside the guilt long enough to ask. Of course, even as he spent hours debating the phrasing for his insensitive question, the final product came out less than eloquent.
"Hey, Jack?" They were sitting on one of the grassy knolls in the vast Warren. Jack was picking flowers for flower crowns, and Bunny had been reading the same paragraph for almost an hour.
"Mm?" Jack hummed questioningly, not bothering to look up from his task. He wasn't oblivious enough to be completely unaware of Bunny's internal struggle, knowing from experience that focusing on the large rabbit as he tried to formulate difficult, strange, or uncomfortable questions only led to Bunny losing his nerve.
"Did... How- I mean," he tried to say something along the lines of 'How did you become a Spirit?', or 'how did you die?', but somehow the final product ended up- "How did you die a Spirit?" Jack looked up then, and Bunny blinked. If he didn't have fur covering his face, Bunny was sure he would've been as red as North's coat.
Jack only blinked, tilting his head slightly and looking at Bunny calculatingly. "You heard about that?" Bunny could only nod mutely, waiting to see if the winter sprite would answer his strangely worded question. Suddenly, Jack's face broke out into a rather proud smirk. "It was actually very difficult, and quite a long process," Bunny's eyes widened. "It took a lot of experimentation, and it was forever before I finally got the proper mixture, but it was so worth it when it worked!" He beamed excitedly, and Bunny felt some of his fur growing whiter. He had vastly underestimated Jack.
Jack let out a pleased and nostalgic hum. "I'll never forget the look on his face when he realized he was suddenly purple!" Suicide was not what he had... Bunny blinked, his forehead furrowing in confusion.
"What?" He croaked.
"I mean, yeah he's still got some leftover patches, and the first few decades I was dodging assassination attempts, but again, totally worth it." Jack crowed, Bunny unable to put two words together, and too bewildered to try to correct Jack's interpretation of a bad question.
"I," Bunny tried, losing whatever nerve he had left as he stared at his paws, frustrated at himself but also grateful, every time he thought about it, he became more unsure of whether asking that nagging question was even worth it.
"I know," Jack whispered after a moment, meeting Bunny's startled eyes with his own blue ones, giving a gentle smile that both reassured Bunny and worried him, as he had never seen such a strange mixture of fondness, pain, and... something else that he couldn't identify. Jack turned his face slightly away from Bunny, whispering something quietly in a dialect the ancient rabbit had never heard previously. A snap of pale fingers and a bright golden capsule appeared in Jack's open palm. More whispered words, and Bunny suddenly heard a faint voice.
"Jack!" He didn't recognize the voice, but he felt a sudden surge of protectiveness, surprising him. He turned to Jack, only to find the Spirit gazing knowingly back at him.
"It does that," Jack's tone was soft. "I couldn't bring myself to leave it somewhere, so I had an old friend adjust it so I can keep it with me without it constantly calling out to me. Curiosity and a few adjustments led to an experiment, and now I can extend it's range so others can hear it. I haven't shown the others yet, but," Jack trailed off, his eyes slightly unfocused before he seemed to suddenly snap back to reality. "Someday," Bunny could barely hear the word, even with his superior hearing, but he still managed to pick it up.
"You don't have to," Bunny told him. "It was just a stupid curiosity. I told you my story, then I started to wonder, and when you collapsed, I checked, you didn't..."
"No heartbeat," Jack seemed to read his mind. "It's okay, Bunny. I've held onto it for too long, overanalyzing and questioning. I think it would be good for someone else's perspective." He smiled reassuringly, holding the capsule out to Bunny. Hearing it calling to him, Bunny took it before he could even think about it. The second his paw grasped the small container, his surroundings flashed and changed. Suddenly he was seeing through the eyes of a brown-haired teen.
Scene after scene flashed by, depicting different aspects of the boy's life, from climbing trees to playing pranks, to telling stories. In every scene, he noticed one constant: a girl with long brown hair. "Jack!" She cried time after time, different inflection telling him exactly how she meant the four-letter pronoun. Exasperated, happy, fond, upset, angry, frustrated, and finally, fearful.
"I'm scared," he watched with wide eyes as Jack calmly dealt with the situation, easily keeping his sister calm while working to pull her to safety. When she was finally safe, he let out a sigh of relief. Of course, it was a moment too soon, as the very next second Jack was dragged under the surface of the freezing water. Bunny dazedly watched over 300 years of loneliness, pain, suffering, and most of all, the feeling of not knowing why.
Something about the capsule, he realized, he felt everything Jack felt. His chest felt hollow with the burning, aching question.
Why.
He was grateful when the painful feeling finally dissolved, hope welling up in its stead. He watched familiar interactions through new eyes, and couldn't keep the tears from rolling down his cheeks.
The dream-like state faded as abruptly as it had started, leaving Bunny dazed and speechless; processing. Jack, to his credit, waited patiently. When the rabbit finally broke out of his daze, he felt the weight of what he'd just experience. Eyes filling with tears once more, he found himself pulling Jack into his arms, holding the boy tight, wishing that he could've been there for Jack, resolving to do better in the future, to give Jack all that the boy deserved.
If Bunny was more protective of Jack in the months to come, more indulgent and even caring, the others didn't comment. It surprised the other three Guardians, to say the least, but they knew that the newest addition to their ragtag family most definitely deserved all the love they could give.