Chapter Text
“Could you slow down?!” Bunny yelled as he gripped Jack’s hoodie. They were racing past snowy mountains and patches of glaciers, Jack whispering his destination to the globe he now held in his hand, his other hand barely controlling the reindeer’s movements.
“I thought you liked going fast!” Jack cackled.
“You’re worse than North! I think I’m going to be sick!”
Jack threw the globe hard in front of him. “You better not, I don’t know if puke gets ricocheted back at us as we go through the portal.”
“YOU-” they were consumed by the wormhole and came out to Burgess, almost getting caught on high reaching trees. Jack steered towards the town’s park, where his Guardian ceremony took place. He knew Jaime and his gang should be down there somewhere, playing around and getting into trouble.
Bunny surrendered to sitting on the sleigh’s floor, arms wrapped around the spirit’s legs. No seatbelts still, he thought bitterly. The Cossack’s supposed apprentice is a snowy flyer that can easily be picked up by the wind, and he still allowed him to drive with no seatbelts-
“Bunny, I can’t stand properly with you working your claws into my legs,” Jack huffed, trying to kick off his clinging friend. “After a week’s practice I got it handled now, see?” Jack’s voice lowered to a mutter. “It’s not like that one instance on Wednesday with that tree. I swear, it showed up out of nowhere…”
“Like hell! With your loose grip on the reins, the wind can easily lift you up and leave me in here to crash!”
“Aw, poor Roo,” Jack pulled on Bunny’s holster to lift him to his feet. “-you afraid I’m going to leave? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you.” He patted the fur on top of Bunny’s head. The sleigh lurched forward, causing the frightful rabbit to grab his friend's waist and once again dig his claws into the hoodie, growling in protest.
Jack thought for a moment, an idea popping into his head. “What did North say that one time? Oh yeah!” Jack coughed up his best North impression and said in the most terrible Russian accent, “I hope you like the loop-de-loops!” fixing his hold on his staff, he raised it high over the reindeer, once again forming new ice corkscrews. They raced along through every spiral, with the maniacal sprite leading the whole crusade. In each turn came an excited cheer from its ringleader, his unfortunate passenger hollering for a stop as they neared the park’s pond.
In the midst of one curve, the wind shifted and blew hard, and Jack slipped from where he stood. He brought the reins down along with him, yanking the reindeer into a different direction: the ground.
Oh bloody hell, we’re going to crash- With a yell from Bunny, the duo was thrown into a snow hill, the reindeer landing behind them as the sleigh detached and skidded to a stop into a tree trunk.
The surrounding area was filled with silence. Bunny felt someone blowing on his face and blinked open his eyes. An image of Jack’s face puffing out frost onto his nose came into view. Bunny yelped and sat bolt upright. They were waist deep in the snow hill, with the reindeer slowly sitting up or starting to eat the foliage around them. Jack drew swirls in the snow between them, commenting, “I could feel you breathing down my neck y’know. By the way, your breath stinks of carrots.”
Bunnymund, livid and embarrassed, yelled out, “This was exactly how I thought it would go! You never learn! Wait until I tell Tooth…no! Wait until I see North, I’ll tell him off for how he teaches, his reckless little helper-”
“We were doing just fine until the end! Look, we made it here in one piece!”
“You were distracted the entire time driving!”
“Yeah, because someone was attached to my hip, sidetracking my focus.”
As they were bickering, a hint of yellow hair appeared in the clearing. “Bunny!” Sophie ran up, followed by her brother and his crew. Jack shoved Bunny’s face away- the pooka was always such a close talker- and waved to the bustling kids.
“Whoa, what happened to you guys?” Jaime asked earnestly. Sophie giggled and jumped head first into the snowpile, joining the two guardians. Bunny scoffed as he squirmed out of the snow, hopping out to land on solid ground.
“Someone’s reckless driving is what happened!” Bunny exclaimed.
Jack opened his mouth in protest. “Hey! I’m a good driver, I just have scared rabbits as passengers. The wind is what happened!”
“Just to get this straight, without me holding you down you would’ve been swept up by that breeze-”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. Thanks a bunch Roo, you’re the best. Now, can you help me come out from under here? My leg’s stuck on some gripping vines I think.” Jack tapped Bunny’s feet with his staff, causing them to frost over.
With a huff Bunny leaned down, grabbed his mischievous friend’s waist and pulled, taking Sophie along with him, who had a death grip on Jack’s shoulders. “How did you ankle-biters know we were here?” Bunny asked, placing the sprite rather forcefully on the ground, almost in a way that said no more flying, stay put. Sophie climbed out of Jack’s arms and went running to a nearby reindeer to say hi to.
“We heard a crash-” “-and thought it seemed suspicious." Caleb and Claude finished each other's sentences as they went to examine the sleigh and its interior.
“Did you guys take the sleigh out for a ride? Won’t you get in trouble for that with North?” Pippa questioned.
“You know, that reminds me of those gushy teens in movies, where the daughter steals her dad’s car and takes her boyfriend out with her.” Cupcake thought out loud.
“Hey! I didn’t steal anything! North trusts me with his stuff!” Jack pouted, his nose high in the air. “He made me his Christmas helper this year, so I get privileges.”
“Did you gloss over the second part of her sentence?” Bunny said, whipping his head around. Thank God all that snow made his ears already red, or else excuses would have to be made up for their rosy look now.
“I ride! Me next!” Sophie hopped, coming back over and pulling on Bunny’s fur.
“Uh, maybe next time, little one.” Bunny gently said, producing a chocolate peppermint googie from his holster and tucking it into her grabby hands.
Jack looked up in thought. “You know what, crashing the sleigh is kind of fun.”
***
After an afternoon with the kids, they arrived back at the Pole, bursting through the workshop's doors with a loud bang. “Well, that flight went better than I thought,” Jack commented, flicking off all the buttons from the sleigh’s dashboard as they skidded to a stop. The sleigh heaved and relaxed, rocking down and causing its two passengers to stumble.
Bunny was holding his head. He shakily climbed out as Jack jumped down with a grin. “We should do that again.”
“Never again.”
Jack continued to bounce on the balls of his feet as they walked, going up the elevator and through a hallway to the globe room. “You're no fun.”
“I think I need to lie down.”
Unexpectedly, a door on their left burst open, and out came North. “I noticed sleigh was missing. You went out for joy ride!” He cried happily as he approached them. Then he noticed the frazzled looking Bunny. “HA!’ North bellowed, pointing wildly at him. “You went as well! It’s fun, no?”
“Like hell! What kind of shoddy teacher are you? I think I still have snow in my poor ears.” Bunny pulled at his ears. “I won’t be able to hear properly out of them now. They’ve been ruined by the sounds of a sleigh creaking and groaning and an evil winter spirit’s laughter.”
Jack grew an impish smile. “Hmm, I don't think so, let me check if you can hear this.” Jack cupped his hand to his mouth, stood on tiptoe and leaned into Bunny’s ear. “Guess what Kangaroo? Tomorrow I’m taking Jaime and Sophie out for a spin.”