Archive of Our Own ^beta

Shades of black and white were what the world had looked like to him since he first opened his eyes. At four, his parents knew right off the bat he had a problem with colors the first time they introduced him to the Pyrefrost family’s business, Floral Design. The young pooka wondered curiously why his parents called each shade different names instead of giving them the adjectives for how heavy, or light, they were.

The doctor informed them he had complete color blindness and recommended that his parents find him a pair of color correcting glasses for him. Oh, his parents found them, all right, but the price was beyond their reach. Living in a capital city kept their business going steadily enough. However, buying the glasses would put an enormous burden on their money management.

He told them that this was fine. He could just ask if he wanted to know the name of the shades.

He asked what they called the color of their fur. His parents said they were brown and remembering that shade’s name he did.

His eyes were also brown. They said he had the prettiest eyes they had ever seen.

And their markings, bright green. He could totally see from the lighter shade.

The teachers in the kindergarten avoided giving him too many assignments involving colors, after getting informed about his condition. That did not make him the odd one, however. Other kids liked him for being fun and approachable, and because of this, his color blindness seemed to just bring him even more attention. Mostly, people questioned how he saw colors. The additional attention gradually died down after a few days.

He would ask his friends which shade was which color. They would answer eagerly. Just like how kids were.

As he grew up, he also learned that colors can show feelings too. For him, who had never seen colors, he couldn’t feel them. It was a shame. Having this color blindness sometimes made him feel incomplete, or rather broken. That kind of feeling didn’t stay for long however, and he managed without having to rely on colors, anyway.

It was in middle school that he learned about verbal bullying by being verbally bullied. The verbal bullying didn’t stay long after it reached the ears of the teachers. But the experience had left him at the lowest self-esteem possible. People had all kinds of opinions about him. He managed through the years with people he could hardly call friends, more like, acquaintances.

In high school, he took up literature class, and… literally anything that didn’t involve colors. He also ended up in the training club of the school. Mostly, people joined this club because they want to apply for military school after graduating. But for him? He got a crush on this one pooka named Aster. And for some weird reason, the guy joined the training club despite his passion for art.

He kept his color blindness a secret and tried to not give opinions about things that involved colors. It wasn’t hard, considering he had become very introverted since middle school. 

After school, in the club, Aster approached him. He almost let go of the three kilograms weights in his hands as the said pooka placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, uh… you seem to not socialize a lot. I just want to… make you feel more comfortable?” Aster said as he let go of his shoulder.  “I’m Aster”

“I-I’m Jackalope. But just call me Jack” Jack introduced himself back, trying to ignore the heat on his cheeks. Finally getting a close look at his crush, Aster was hecking tall, standing at six or seven feet, probably seven? His two-tone fur and markings were genuinely standing out. Comparing to Jack’s 5’5 feet, he was a giant,

Aster smiled -Oh dang- and eased into a comfortable posture, his shoulder relaxed. “Okay, Jack. Do you wanna hang out after club finishes? I can treat you a can of soda”

“S-sure!” Jack answered, a little bit too excited.

After the club, the two walked side by side with a can of soda in their own hands. Jack’s heart was bumping a bit too fast for comfort and he had to look at every direction except the one Aster was in.

“So, what classes do you take?” Aster asked. “I’m just curious, seeing that we’ve come across each other quite often”

Jack forced himself to calm down quickly as he replied. “I take Literature and most of the subjects in Social Study” Jack fidgeted with the can in his grasp, faking his interest in it.

“Social Study? Wow man, I could applaud you for taking it. Only a few people want to take it, considering it has a lot of branches” Aster said. Jack dared to look at the taller pooka and saw that admiring expression.

‘I’m totally dead’ Jack thought. “Uh, t-thanks. What about you?” Jack continued with the topic, even though he already knew some of Aster’s schedule.

“I take all Art subjects and Science” Aster replied, excited to talk about what he liked.

“You must like Art” Jack responded. “And are superb at it too”

Aster chuckled. “Yes, but I don’t think I’m on the level of superb yet. Have to improve a lot more” Aster then suddenly seemed to realize something before his face fell, and his ears as well.

“Hey, I’m sure you’ll be the best artist ever, Aster,” Jack said, trying to melt away whatever Aster just thought of. 

Aster gave him a sincere smile. “Thanks”

Jack chuckled. “No problem. Maybe, you can draw a picture of me one day?” He suggested, blushing underneath his fur.

“That’s a wonderful idea!”

They became friends afterward. Meeting often after school, talking about their days, sharing their interests. A lengthy period passed by, and from friends, they became best friends. Sharing interests became sharing something more personal.

“What do you wanna be?” One evening, Aster asked.

Jack shrugged. “I don’t know. I often think of taking over my family’s business but… I’m not suited for the job”

“Why? Can’t you just learn how to arrange flowers from your parents?” Aster asked curiously. Taking over the family business was a stereotype most people follow. There was nothing wrong with taking over the business, and most families became famous for what they did after a few generations.

Jack looked at Aster, hesitating to tell him the reason.

After a short while of staring, Aster realized that he shouldn’t have asked. “Jack. It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me”

“No, I just…” Jack sighed in frustration. “Well, screw it. I’m completely color blind”

Aster looked at him wide eyed. “Oh…”

Jack nodded. “Got bullied in middle school because of it. I have been keeping it a secret since starting highschool” He gazed at Aster softly. “You… you’re the only close friend I have. Promise me, please, you won’t tell others”

Aster gave him a reassuring grin. “I promise you”

Jack returned the grin. “And what about you?”

“I wanna be an artist, obviously” Aster replied. But then he suddenly let out a miserable sigh. “But my father wants me to join the military force. My family is famous in the military field. Almost everyone in the family serves the homeworld in their mastered fields. Me? I’m a rebel in my father’s eyes”

Jack gave him a sympathizing gaze. “That’s awfully unfair for you. Y-you’ll have to train and summon your magic. It’ll be hard and… life-threatening. Can’t you have any opinion about it?” He knew that if Aster joined the military, regardless of what profession he would do in there, he had to be able to summon his magic. Summoning magic was like making a gamble with death. If you failed, you got injured to a life-threatening degree. Some people survived. Some just couldn’t handle the injury long enough.

Aster chuckled humorlessly. “Nope, it’s the name of my family that keeps me rooted to them. I believe you have heard of the family Bunnymund right? That’s my last name”

Jack’s jaw dropped. Utterly unprepared for Aster to tell him his last name, especially since they were only best friends. And Aster, he was one of the Bunnymund. The most ambitious and honorable family who supported and served the homeworld for generations in every profession available in the military force, from successful medics to glorified soldiers to even intelligent weapon inventors. “You… you just-”

“Yeah, I just told you my family name” Aster gave him a sad smile. “Because graduation is coming soon, and I have to join the military right after. You’re the only true friend I’ve had and you deserve to know it. I want you to remember me as much as possible”

Jack felt his heart thumping against his chest. Telling family names to someone was for when you consider someone the dearest to you. In pooka culture, family names hold power and can totally change one’s perspective on a person. This was because of the older generations who had contributed so much to the history of pooka. The famous families were treated respectfully and the poor, or the families with poor records were treated the polar opposite.

Hence, authority carried out rules and laws regarding family name. You can’t ask someone for their family name unless the others tell you willingly.

“Hey, you still here?” Aster asked. “Did I break you?”

Jack shut his mouth immediately. “I… That’s…”

“Oh my moon! I broke you!” Aster chuckled at Jack’s expression.

“I-it’s Pyrefrost. My family name” Jack stuttered out. “Please remember it”

Aster gave him a bewildered look. “Well, I wasn’t expecting you to tell yours as well…” He then gave Jack a grateful grin. “I’ll remember it. Thanks for trusting me”

Jack returned the same grin. “Thanks for trusting me too”

“Come here” Aster said as he scooted closer and wrapped an arm around Jack’s shoulders.

The two stayed like that for a while until Jack broke the comfortable silence.

“Will… will we ever meet again?” Jack asked, worry dripping in his tone.

“Of course, I’ll make sure of it, my friend” Aster reassured.

“Another question. If you don’t mind?” Jack looked up and down Aster’s form.

“Ask away”

“What’s your colors?”

The fact that Aster had to join the military prevented Jack from telling him his true feelings. He didn’t want to be a distraction and a factor in Astor’s decision making. Thus, their goodbye was only a heartfelt hug and a gift for each other. Jack gave Aster a necklace with a rose pendant attached to it and he received art of himself from Aster and his art book. And the man on the moon, it did look like the best art. Their friendships throughout the year were drawn onto each page beautifully.

He held them close as he watched Aster get into a luxurious-looking car. The pain and worry in his heart never melted away ever since.

He kept his duffle bag close to him as they forced him into the evacuating ship. The war between pooka and Fearlings had broken out. The frontline in space had tried their best to keep out the Fearlings, but their effort came to waste as Fearlings kept multiplying. The pooka had only a few hours before the army of Fearlings reached the pooka’s homeworld.

His hope for Aster surviving this war kept withering until they were no more. He watched the pooka homeland getting infested by the Fearlings, little by little. It was a moment of silence that he mourned for Aster and the homeworld of the pooka species. He held his duffel close as tears slid down his furry cheeks. Inside of it was Aster’s art book along with the drawing of himself.

He didn’t know when he fell asleep, but he knew when he woke up. It was when the Fearlings had ambushed the evacuating ship. Alerting sensors were going off rapidly as the ship shook as if something crashed against it. Jack fell out of his bunk onto the floor. Looking down the hallway filled with bunks on both sides, he saw a moving shadow.

When the first scream came, it was when the actual hell broke loose.

In an instant, he got up from the floor and ran from the approaching shadows. People are bumping into one another as they tried to run for their lives, just like him. He dodged and ran away in panic, a ring in his ears making him unable to hear. He ran down the stairs, not sure where he was going. He just wanted to get away as far as possible.

A claw reached out for him from before and tore into his shoulder before he shook it off. Pain flared up immediately, but he clenched his mouth shut and kept running down, adrenaline keeping him going.

He reached a room, filled with evacuation pods. He was glad for a moment until he noticed that most of them were destroyed, hints of claw marks and sharp blades evidently told him who did this. He kept running while keeping eyes on every pod, until he found an unbroken one, just at the end of the hallway. 

The Fearling behind him let out a loud bellow as it chased him. It lunged for the second time, clawing his leg this time. 

He jumped into the pod just as it clawed at his leg, tearing a lengthy line down his thigh. The pod closed automatically and started its evacuating process. Jack couldn’t hear anything the machine said as its system turned up. The pain in his shoulder and thigh, the hammering of his heart against his chest, the bleeding, they all muted anything coming into his ears.

He fell unconscious inside the pod, thinking to himself that at least he hadn’t been devoured by the Fearling. He’d rather bleed out like this on his own, with Aster’s belongings close to him as comfort before his death came.

Except he did not die.

He woke up to find himself in the pod, sitting properly in its seat with his duffle bag on his lap. The machine was informing him about something repeatedly. He could finally coherent the words after he shook himself out of the daze.

[An inhabitable planet found. Prepare for landing]

[An inhabitable planet found. Prepare for landing]

[An inhabitable planet found. Prepare for landing]

[An inhabitable planet found. Prepare for landing]

Oh…

[Preparing for landing in 30 seconds]

OH CRAP.

Jack looked around himself, finding that he had already been in the safety belts. Sighing in relief as he let the machine do its job.

The pod shook violently as it entered the atmosphere, and the next thing he knew was a hard crash. The belts pushed against him, or rather he pushed against the belt, knocking the air out of him.

The hatch in front of him opened up, letting sunlight and foreign air fill the free space around him. The belts unlocked themselves and he could finally move. He groaned as his joints popped into its places after standing up. He checked his body, seeing that his two wounds had been treated and healed, probably by the machine. There weren’t any patches of fur on his healed wounds, only scars.

He walked out from the pod, taking in his surroundings. There were snow and trees everywhere and the surrounding air was humid, probably the result of the landing. The snow melted around the pod, wetting his bare feet and dirt under them. He shivered as a cold wind blew past him, his scars taking in most of the coldness.

Looking back at the pod, the exterior seemed damaged, and the interior was too narrow to make it a shelter. Still, there should be an emergency kit in there somewhere. He went back into the pod, looking around to find said kit. Finding it under the seat, in the shape of business luggage, he pulled it out and examined what was inside.

A hunting knife with a sheath. A set of medical kits. A bottle of inflammable alcohol and a lighter alongside it. That was it. No gun or destructive weapon. No protection for the current season.

He needed to find shelter.

He found said shelter after a while of walking and struggling to keep the heat with him. Finally arriving at a frozen pond, not too large and not too small, and beside it was a tree with a hollow space under it big enough for him to put his belongings down and make a campfire.

He went out to find some dry twigs and sticks before coming back and light them up with his lighter. The brown pooka sat down on the floor and relaxed as the heat seeped into him. Figuring that he should save the alcohol for other things instead since this was an inhabitable planet, and there should be creatures he could hunt. The only obstacle was that he didn’t know how to hunt.

Well, he would worry about that later. Right at that moment, he recalled everything that had happened. He could not help but let the idea that he probably was the only one to survive that ambush come into his mind. And Aster… No, he wouldn’t think about him. It was overwhelming. He couldn’t handle thinking about that. 

A few hours passed with him wallowing in his grief and internal battle against negative thoughts. It was night, and the frozen surface of the pond was reflecting the moonlight so beautifully. He stood in the middle of the pond, looking up at the full moon.

This planet had a moon of its own. The longer he stared at it, the more he felt as if it was staring back. Shivers went through his entire body as the harsh wind blew past him, breaking him out of his trance. He went back into his shelter and decided that he should rest up and prepare himself for tomorrow.

He was walking around with a long stick that he carved into a spear with his knife. He kept the knife in its sheath, which wrapped around his chest and shoulder. He was not used to this. Being in a city didn’t teach him much survival capability, but he at least had read through a few articles on how to fend for himself in this situation. And he had enough common senses to correspondingly adapt to the situation.

What made this task harder was the fact that he was completely color blind. Some animals could just be blending in with the trees and he wouldn’t even see them.

He luckily found a small creature, jumping around in the opening nibbling at the grasses that managed to make their ways up through all the snow. He lunged and plunged his spear into its flesh abruptly. His first time killing something.

“Well, that was easy” He muttered to himself as he collected his prey. “I should gather some more woods as well”

He was close to the pond when laughter rang out from there. He ducked and moved closer to observe what was happening, getting behind one of several trees beside the pond. He saw a creature, in clothing, swirling around on the frozen surface of the pond with its weird looking boots that seemed specially made for moving on the ice. It let out a burst of laughter again as it crashed against the soft snow beside the pond.

Jack watched in fascination. Perhaps this creature could be the local of this planet as it seemed to possess intelligence, and the clothing officially gave him the idea. He wanted to know if the creature was hostile or not.

This was probably a stupid idea, but he couldn’t see any hostility from the creature, and he could take it out if it ever presented as a threat. He stood up and slowly made his way to the pond, leaving all the things behind except his sheathed knife. As expected, it noticed him and screamed out with a startled expression on its face before falling onto its bum.

“I-It’s fine! Friendly! I’m friendly!” He spoke to it hastily, raising his hand as he stopped at the edge of the pond.

The creature suddenly stood up, eyes filled with wonder and bewilderment. “Are you the Easter Bunny!?” Too excitedly, it spoke. Great, they can at least communicate. 

“East what…?” Jack dumbly tried to repeat the word. “What’s a bunny?”

The creature gasped. “How could you not know bunny? They’re cute!” Its personality seemed verily childish. Maybe it was in fact still a child, judging from the height.

“I just arrived here yesterday” Jack responded, fighting the urge to step back as the creature approached him. “Don’t know much about this world”

“Oh” The creature stopped in front of him and looked at him up and down. It made him feel self-conscious. Maybe he should have got in some clothing to appear formal to aliens before getting on the ship after all.

“Yeah… so, what is this place?” Jack asked.

They talked a lot after that. Jack invited her into his shelter. She got a bit startled at the corpse of his prey but then muttered something about him not being a bunny after all. Maybe said the creature looked like pooka, but not the same size, and lacked a certain amount of intelligence. She told him she was a human and a female. As he had guessed, she was also a child. She introduced herself as Mary Overland. And she knew him simply as “Jack”. The two just became secret friends.

They exchanged a lot of information as time passed. Her community. Her family. Important days and religion. It was surprising to them that both pooka and human had a lot in common. Mary talked about Easter Day and the symbols representing the day, chocolate eggs, and a bunny. Ugh… chocolate. That thing the pooka used in the military to gain massive strength and temporary mutation.

The young girl said she wanted to catch the Easter Bunny in action this year. He couldn’t help but want to help the child. She had helped him a lot for the past few days since they met. Spring was near and it wouldn’t be long before they got to see the said creature.

Except, that moment never came. They were fools to think they could play on the frozen pond when the sun was shining down and the spring eating away the winter coldness. Jack saved Mary’s life, but at the cost of his own. Mary frantically tried to hook him up with her shepherd staff, but the pond was unexpectedly deep and she could no longer see his reflection.

Jack’s last thoughts were full of regrets, but also resignation as the harshest cold filled his lungs and numbed everything.

It was cold around him. Too cold. But he didn’t shiver. His body didn’t shake uncontrollably from coldness. It just felt so… normal.

He let out a sharp gasp as air filled his lungs, with his eyes opened in to see the moon. He was slowly floating down before touching the icy surface of a frozen pond. Something drew his attention as he looked around, a staff for a shepherd, maybe? He strangely felt a connection to it as he picked it up from the snow. Glowing frosts ran along the wood slowly as he touched it. He stared at the beautiful frost, admiring how they coated the staff.

And the next he knew was that he could fly.

He found a village and flew down to greet the people, only to find out he was invisible to everyone, almost as if he didn’t exist in their eyes.

Later on, the moon told him his name. “Jack Frost”

Shades of black and white. That was what the world had looked like to him since he first opened his eyes. Jack Frost thought it was so boring and not fun. Like, he looked rather bland when he looked at his reflection. White hair and grey eyes…? And pale white skin.

And the art book which he didn’t seriously understand. He found it later that day after the moon told him his name. He felt connected to it; however, still different from the way he felt connected with his staff. Inside the artbook were several paintings of several objects and these two weird bunny-like creatures. The last page had a half body painting of one of the two giant bunnies. The book seemed to tell a story if he was to take a guess. The artist of this art book surely had an interesting imaginative mind.

Jack Frost met the others like him. He learned that he was a spirit, and he was pretty much invisible in every aspect to a human’s eyes with no one believing in him. He made a few spirit acquaintances on his journey around the world with the wind, and eventually, he caught the news about the Guardians of Childhood. He learned about Santa Claus, Sandman, Tooth Fairy, and Easter Bunny.

The Easter Bunny. There was something skeptical about him. First, he looked almost exactly like one of the giant bunnies in his art book. Second, Jack felt strangely familiar with the guy. He felt like he knew the guy, but at the same time, he didn’t. He tried to communicate with the moon, but the man didn’t answer. Wouldn’t answer.

Jack also felt the same familiarity with a woman who always came to his pond and mourned for someone named exactly like him. Eventually, she moved out of the area to somewhere else with the love of her life. He was glad she finally moved on from whatever it was.

The first time he met the Easter Bunny, it didn’t go so well.

Two spring spirits ganged up on him and stole his duffle bag. He tried to get it back, but they bound him against a tree with their magics. Stupid spring spirit and their plant magic.

“Oh look, a book full of art, a knife, and a lighter?” The one going through his bag spoke up. “What kind of winter spirit carries a lighter? That’s nuts!”

“He probably stole it, seeing how much of a troublemaker he is” The other one shrugged and sneered at Jack.

“Troublemaker? What are you even spewing right now?” Jack asked with annoyance clear in his tone. He struggled against the binding, but it was only getting tighter and tighter.

“Fact. Maybe if you just go and live in the poles, we wouldn’t have so much trouble bringing spring right now!” The guy exclaimed. “Everywhere you go, you bring the wind and snow with you. It’s messing up our schedules and especially our plants. For years, we’ve tolerated this but you’re just ignorant like every other winter spirit”

“Look, maybe it’s not me but the weather of this world itself! Snow doesn’t melt fast this year, I noticed. But you can’t just dump all the blame on me” Jack tried to be rational. But his patience was wearing thin as he saw the other spirit fumbling with his belongings. “Hey! Stop going through my things!”

The one talking to him looked at the items and grabbed them. “And you running around the area doesn’t help. Maybe a little payback wouldn’t hurt, would it?” The guy held his art book up, with a lighter in his other hand. The fire was dangerously close to the book.

“Don’t do it! Please! I’m sorry!” Jack struggled even more, but he felt so useless.

“Care about it so much? Maybe this will teach you how much we care about our plants as well” Jack watched as the book caught the fire. “NO!” He yelled and saw white. Desperate, he felt the cold spread around fast, too fast.

When he could see again, the snow had covered everything. His book was on the ground along with his other belongings. The two bullies were nowhere to be seen. Did he just… drive them away with the coldness? He knew how temperature could affect seasonal spirits, especially the weak ones.

His binding had disappeared. He hurriedly collected his things, shoving them into his bag before grabbing his staff. Just when he was about to ask the wind to take him away a voice rang out to him.

“Not so fast, mate. Where do ya think ya going?”

He turned to see the Easter Bunny. Great, another one, a powerful one too. He raised his brows at the giant bunny questioningly.

The Easter Bunny didn’t seem to approve of his silence, and he looked furious. “Did ya do this? The blizzard?”

Blizzard? Jack looked around to see that it was in fact snowing heavily and almost too windy. It would be only a few minutes until it fully set in. He did this…? Perhaps he did. “Uh… yes…?” WHY DID HE TELL THE TRUTH? WHY DID HE FEEL AS IF HE COULDN’T LIE TO THIS GUY?

The Easter Bunny seemed to get more furious as each second passed. “Can ya undo it? It’s Easter Sunday here and I need to hide the eggs before dawn”

Crap. He didn’t know how to. This was completely unintentional. “Sorry, I… lost control” He answered the guy.

“What do ya bloody mean ya lost control!?” The bunny yelled at him. “Bloody bastard! My patience is wearing thin and if ya don’t undo the blizzard right now, I will seriously punch ya in the face!”

He couldn’t feel any connection to the blizzard now. It had built up independently and cut ties with him. He wasn’t its owner anymore. “I-I can’t” He weakly responded, stepping back as the six, or seven, feet giant bunny approached him.

A harsh wind blew knocked against them, making them stumbled to the side a bit. It was too late now. The bunny growled as he pushed Jack against the tree, his hand threateningly wrapped around his neck. “Ya just bloody took away an entire town of my believers! You know what? They are right. A troublemaker winter spirit named Jack Frost. Seems like you live up to the rumors after all!” The hand around his neck was clenching up and Jack for the first time truly felt cold.

His breath was coming out short and he could barely take any air in. But before he could feel any panic rise, the hand let him go. He fell onto the ground, coughing up as his throat relaxed and let the air in. When he fully recovered, he was already alone in the blizzard he couldn’t control.

He fucked up big time.

He had kept his distance from the Easter Bunny ever since that day. The guy hurt him, and Jack kind of felt like he deserved it. The incident was an unfortunate one, and all the questions Jack had for the Easter Bunny seemed like they wouldn’t get answered soon, or ever.

He learned that he was completely color blind years later when he was watching over a group of kids from Burgess and they started taking a color blindness test for fun. It was quite a surprise to him, and he questioned about the colors even more. And alongside the need for humans to believe in him, there was also a need to see colors.

He was also jealous. Others got to see colors, but he didn’t? What a cruel fate.

Today was a snow day. Kids liked to play in the snow, and he was kind enough to provide them the snow and fun. Maybe they would slowly start believing in him if he kept at it. But it ended up with Jamie Bennett losing a tooth, and the entire thing turned into a Tooth Fairy conversation. Jack was frustrated but he didn’t blame the kids.

Feeling defeated for the day, he listlessly followed Jamie back to his house, watching the kid and his sister from outside for a while before he got up from his upside-down position and walked around the roof of Bennett’s home.

He looked up at the moon, a small desperate feeling bubbling up inside of him. “If there’s something I’m doing wrong, could you just tell me what it is? Because I’ve tried... everything! And no one ever sees me! You put me here! The least you can do is tell me, tell me why…” The man in moon never answered, just like always. He sighed in defeat. Maybe it all was a punishment for him.

He caught a spiral of white…? (he wasn’t even sure anymore) sand flowing into the town. “Right on time, Sandman” He put his hand through one of the spirals and the sand shaped itself into a dolphin. He laughed as it swam the air around him excitedly.

Well, seeing children’s innocent dreams always put a smile on his face.

“Hello, mate”

Jack whirled around with a startled yelp, seeing a giant bunny in the shadow.

“Been a long time” Bunny (Yes, he heard the name from other spirits. Kinda fitting) walked out from the shadow. “Blizzard ‘68, I believe. Easter Sunday, wasn’t it?”

Jack unconsciously stepped back. “B-bunny! You’re not still mad about that, are you?” He held his staff close as the bunny approached.

“Yes” Duh. “But this is about something else, Fellas?”

Next thing he knew was that he got shoved into a bag and thrown into a portal. He landed on his bums and it hurt like hell. 

“He’s here! Quiet!” He heard a bellowing elderly voice called out. He grabbed at the fabric and blindly pulled at it until it opened up. “There he is! Jack Frost!”

In front of him was- “Wow... you gotta be kidding me” The guardians. This was the inside of Santa’s workshop? He had been trying to sneak in for several occasions, but the Yetis always managed to find him first.

“I hope the Yetis treated you well?” Santa, North said.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, I love being shoved in a sack and tossed through a magic portal” He replied sarcastically.

“Oh. Good! That was my idea” North gestured to the Easter Bunny. “You know Bunny, obviously” This old man didn’t get his sarcasm. Dear man in moon, save him, please.

Jack eyed bunny warily. “Obviously…”

“And the Tooth Fairy-”

“Hello Jack! I’ve heard a lot about you, and your teeth!” Tooth enthusiastically greeted him. A little too close for comfort.

Jack leaned back. “My what?”

“Open up!” Tooth’s hands were suddenly invading his mouth. “Open up! Are they really as white as they say? Yes- Oh! Oh they really do sparkle like freshly fallen snow”

The little tooth fairies swooned and chirped excitedly. “Girls, pull yourself together. Let’s not disgrace the uniform” Tooth said to her fairies.

“And Sandman… Sandy?” He nudged the Sandman who was sleeping while hovering in the air. “Wake up!” That did the job.

“Okay! Anyone wanna tell me why I’m here?” Jack said as he looked around the place. Sand raised his hand and started signing swiftly with his sand. Jack could make out only a bit before the signs became too fast to read. “That’s not really helping, but thanks little man”

“I must’ve done something really bad to get you four together” Freezing the elf as he playfully observed the place again before turning back to North. “Am I on the Naughty List?”

“Hah! On Naughty List? You hold record” North replied. “But no matter, we overlook. Now we are wiping clean the slate”

Jack frowned. “How come?”

“Hah, good question” Bunny butted in.

“How come? I’ll tell you how come!” North exclaimed. “Because now, you are Guardian!”

Well, shit.

After their first encounter with Pitch Black at the Tooth Palace, Tooth told him how the teeth worked and that he used to be someone before he became Jack Frost. But Pitch had them, and they needed to get them back. Jack wasn’t quite sure about that. He, of course, was eager to know who he was before becoming Jack Frost. But why couldn’t he remember anything in the first place? Did he even have the teeth box at all?

He was kicked out of his train of thoughts when Tooth gasped and noticed her feathers molting. The Tooth Fairy looked almost hopeless before North brought up a plan and an offer to help Jack get his memories.

He honestly had a hard time believing it, but he accepted, anyway. He kind of started to like these people.

Jack struggled to sneak into the children’s room and locate the pillows. He now realized that he honestly wasn’t suited for night work. He hated too many black colors. They were not fun to look at. Especially the Boogeyman, just Nah.

The guardians’ last destination was in Jamie Bennett’s room. The first ones to arrive were Jack and Tooth. Tooth told him how seeing the kids was what she liked to do, but she somehow stopped without knowing it.

“Looks a little different up close, huh?” Jack gave her a reassuring smile.

She gave him a grateful grin. “Thanks for being here, Jack” She reached for his shoulder and patted it. “I wish I’d known about your memory. I could’ve helped you” 

Jack frowned. “Look, Tooth… I- I don’t think- no, like how North would call it a gut feeling. I don’t feel like there’s any memory for me. You would’ve known. I’ve been Jack Frost for over three hundred years”

“Oh, Jack” Tooth gave him a worried look. “There has to be yours. Don’t lose hope yet”

Then North and Sandy came in, and Bunny was the last one. North’s gleeful cheer about the whole competition woke the child up, and they all stopped as the flashlight clicked on. Abby the Greyhound also woke. It all went chaotic instantaneously when Jack set off the alarm clock and Abby lunged for Bunny before Sandy got pounced on by the dog and sent the ball of dream sand flying. Everyone except Jack and Sandy was knocked out by the dream sand.

Sandy noticed something outside the window and Jack turned around to find a dark horse-like creature outside. He followed the creature straight away, telling Sandy to follow him.

The result of that? Sandy’s death.

They held Sandy’s funeral at Santoff Claussen. Jack blamed himself for not thinking before taking action. Maybe they wouldn’t have lost Sandy if he didn’t insist on following the nightmare. And he could’ve done something, maybe taking the hit for Sandy. It would’ve been much better to have himself eliminated than Sandy. North comforted him, then Bunny brought up Easter. The guardians still had some hope left, after all.

They all arrived at Bunny’s Warren by his rule . Bunny then told them that something was wrong, with his ears perking up and his nose twitching. Jack found that sight strangely familiar.

Bunny’s undecorated eggs came running out from the tunnel. He took a battle stance in a trice, then followed by the others. The sentinels switched their faces to the mean ones. With a battle cry, they rushed to the tunnel with weapons readied in their grips.

Sophie, Jamie’s little sister, ran out with an egg in her palms.

“Sophie?” Jack quickly lowered his staff.

They laughed nervously and quickly put away theirs. Sophie noticed the elf and immediately started chasing it around. “Elf! Elf!”

“What’s she doing here?” Bunny confusedly looked at North.

“Uh..” North patted himself before saying in a deadpan tone. “Snowglobe…” 

“Crikee! Somebody do something!” Bunny looked around but his gaze mostly landed on Jack.

“Whoa, don’t look at me. I’m invisible, remember?”

“Don’t worry Bunny. I bet she’s a Fairy Fan!” Tooth flew up and caught Sophie’s attention just as fast. “It’s okay little one”

“Pretty!” Sophie exclaimed.

“Oh! You know what?” Tooth beamed and hover close to the child. “I’ve got something for you…” Then she opened her palm. “Here it is! Look at all the pretty teeth! With little blood and gum on them!”

Sophie looked at her and the teeth before running away sobbing. Jack laughed a little at that.

“Blood and gum?” He asked. North shrugged in return. “When was the last time you guys actually hung out with kids?”

“Peek-a-boo!” Sophie found the eggs that were trying to hide from her and started chasing them again.

“We are very busy bringing joy to children! We don’t have time…” North paused a bit to look at Sophie running past them laughing. “For children...”

Jack grinned mischievously. Time for fun. He conjured up a snowflake with his magic. “Hm. If one little kid can ruin Easter, then... we’re in worse shape than I thought” He sent out the snowflake, letting it float to the Easter Bunny and bumped into his nose. And it set the magic to work.

Jack let the girl and Bunny have fun as he floated around observing the eggs at work. How Bunny would have the eggs delivered by tomorrow was a mystery to him. And he didn’t feel enthusiastic to help paint the eggs with his condition.

Now that he looked around the warren, he wished he hadn’t had this stupid condition. Everything would look so colorful, and he might even love it. He heard how the guardians called each color and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t jealous at all. And the markings on the eggs? He loved them. Something about that was bugging, however. He had seen those markings before, not on the eggs themselves, but in his art book he had been carrying around. 

He had to take this opportunity and ask Bunny about it.

He followed Bunny through the tunnel as the guy led Sophie through it to see thousands of eggs moving into more tunnels. They stopped at the hill with Sophie sleepy in Bunny’s arms.

Jack smirked at the sight. “Not bad”

Bunny chuckled. “Not bad, yerself”

Moon, this situation felt so strangely familiar that it creeped him out a bit.

“Ah, look, I- I’m sorry about the whole… you know, the “kangaroo” thing” Jack apologized, but that wasn’t entirely what he wanted to talk about.

“It’s the accent, isn’t it?” They both laughed a little at that.

Jack gathered up courage quickly. “I need to show you so-” But North and Tooth came to them before he could finish that. He didn’t know why he felt as if it was too personal.

Sophie yawned into Bunny’s chest as she fell asleep. “Ah, poor little ankle-biter. Look at her, all tuckered out”

Jack volunteered to get her home and come back as fast as possible.

He had some struggles putting her on the bed, her arms were wrapped around his neck and he was a bit too tall for the child’s bed. As he pulled her arms away from him, she immediately rolled and fell off the bed. But she seemed fine after he checked. He draped her blanket on her and put one of the squeaky dolls beside her before hopping out and closed her window. Done.

“We should get back” He told Baby Tooth, and she nodded in agreement.

Jack flew back to the Warren as fast as the wind could take him.

He froze the whole tunnel, taking several nightmares out before they could get the eggs behind him. Some that could survive the blast just got blasted individually. He flew back and proceeded into another tunnel, hearing Bunny’s fighting as he approached the end of the tunnel. They destroyed several eggs in this tunnel. “Bunny!” He saw Bunny getting overwhelmed in the cramped space of the tunnel. His boomerangs weren’t suited for the situation.

Sending his ice into the nightmares around Bunny, taking them out before pulling him up from the ground. “Are you okay?” He asked.

“Probably got one of my ribs broken from them hooves” Bunny groaned as he leaned against the wall of the tunnel, he looked at the destroyed eggs in horror. “Oh no…”

“W-we still have hope. I’ve saved the ones in my tunnel they’re probably moving out to hide right now” Jack said.

Bunny nodded as he pushed himself away from the wall. “Let’s go help North an- Jack!”

Jack felt a hand on his mouth and shoulder as he was dragged into the shade. Everything was dark for a while until the dark finally melted away, revealing a cage that trapped him. “What- Pitch!” He yelled as the Boogeyman appeared in front of his cage. His staff was nowhere to be seen, but his duffle bag was still attached to him.

“Strangely enough. You have no memory for me to lure you in” Pitch ran his hand on the cage as he walked around it. Jack watched him cautiously, judging every action as a threat. “It would have been perfect, you coming to me to get your memory and the guardians losing their trust in you after Easter gets destroyed”

“Heh. Too bad for you then” Jack sent him a smirk to hide the fear that was bubbling up inside him.

Pitch glared at him. “How about this? You join me, and I’ll help you find out who you were. Think about it. If you were really chosen by the man in the moon, why do they only notice you now? When you were so desperate and in need of company, where were they?” Silver tongue bastard, that Pitch was.

Jack blocked out everything Pitch said. “Well, probably busy kicking your ass, you were quite a figure in the old time” He shot back with the remark, snorting amusedly a little at his own statement.

Pitch huffed. “Well, Jack. I was hoping you’d be smarter. Seems like you’re too funny for your own good” As he pulled out Jack’s staff from the shadow, Jack felt the cold he hadn’t felt since Easter Sunday in 1968.

“Give it back...” Jack deadpanned, wide eyes filled with fear.

“Oh, I will, all right?” Pitch chuckled darkly at him, his fingers entwining the wood of Jack’s staff. “After this one” Pitch brought Jack’s staff to his knee and broke it into two. Jack screamed out as pain ran through him. His ears rang, and his vision turned white. Falling to the ground gasping for air that seemed to never be enough, the last thing he thought of before he fell unconscious was wishing for the guardians to be all right.

He came to after… he didn’t know. But the pain wasn’t there anymore, only the hollow feeling lingered. He sat up tiredly, moving to get the remains of his staff. He gazed hopelessly at his broken staff. He opened his duffle bag and put the two sticks inside. He was lucky he still had one more weapon. But he wasn’t sure if it was linked to his magic as well.

So he tried, and sadly it wasn’t.

Suddenly he heard a chirp. It sounded familiar, so much that he realized roughly two seconds after that.

“Baby Tooth!!” Jack promptly pushed himself up despite how tired he was.

Baby Tooth appeared from the dark hallway and flew to Jack, moving past the sizeable gap of the cage. Her chirps and squeaks were filled with concerns as she touched his forehead as if to ask if he was fine. He sighed and fell to his knees. “Pitch broke my staff. I’m powerless right now. How are the others?”

Her dreadful expression told him all.

“This is not good…” Muttering in a deadpan tone, he reached into his bag before bringing out the two sticks that once used to be his staff. “We have to fix this thing”

Baby Tooth seemed to be interested in the other item in his bag more, however. “This book? It’s an art book. And no, I didn’t make it. It was kinda… there, when I first woke up”

He brought the book out and opened each page for her to look. “I don’t really get some of these drawings. They look like they’re telling a story of someone, but I don’t know who. And the character is two giant bunnies like, well, Bunny” He told her and let the book fall into his lap. “Some doodles throughout the pages. I’ve looked at it countless times that I can remember the orders” 

Baby Tooth seemed to get an idea of some sort. She touched the book and grabbed Jack’s hand with her own, seemingly inviting him to touch it as well. “What are we doing?” Jack asked.

Baby Tooth only chirped back eagerly and brought his hand close to the book. Jack shrugged and did as she wanted him to. The world around him seemed to melt into whiteness instantaneously before the shades of black and white appeared again and shaped themselves into scenes.

“Wow, Aster, this is yours? It looks so great!” Jack looked at the opened page of Aster’s artbook. “What are these markings for by the way?” 

Aster chuckled. “Well, thanks. And those that you call markings are doodles. I just like to draw things like that when I’m idle” He sat down on his bed and gestured for Jack to sit next to him. Jack kept his blush under control and hopped down onto the bed with Aster’s artbook in his hand“I will fill every page with art by the end of high school” Aster told him.

Jack beamed at him. “That’s great! I can’t wait to see what you’ll draw”

“Anyway, you wanna play the color cards?” Aster asked, pointing at the box of cards on his shelf.

“U-uh…” Jack trailed off before thinking up an excuse, knowing well that he couldn’t play the color cards. And he wasn’t ready to reveal his condition to Aster. “Maybe another time, I wanna see you draw more”

Aster shrugged. “Great idea. I actually have to draw some sort of color patterns for my homework”

“And you still wanted to play cards?” Jack chuckled amusedly at his friend.

“Ah, stop with that” Aster shot back.

“Have you grown a couple inches, or something?” Aster asked as he inspected Jack after they did their workout in the club.

“Maybe?” Jack unsurely responded. “Isn’t that good?”

“Of course!” Aster laughed. “You won’t be the shortest member of the club after all!”

“Hey!” Jack blushed at Aster’s remark.

“Sheesh, Aster, you look ugly today” Jack told the other pooka as he placed his tray of food opposite of Aster’s, checking his friend’s tired, restless face.

“Gee thanks. Got art blocked last night. It was three in the morning by the time I finished it” Aster lazily picked at his food. His hands were still dirtied with colors, and his fur unkempt.

“Maybe you should just submit the art and go back to bed” Jack suggested.

“Can’t” Aster refused. “Have a science test today, a can of energy drink and I can probably pull through today”

Jack stood up abruptly from the seat and went to grab a can of energy drink. Aster was staring at him tiredly as he trudged back to the seat and placed the can in front of him. “Take it. It’s on me”

Aster grinned. “Thanks, Jackie”

Jack sputtered at the nickname.

“You seem to be really protective of kids,” Aster told him after they told off some bullies who were physically hurting some younger pookas. He applied some paste on Jack’s wound before wrapping it with a bandage.

“Can’t have their childhoods ruined by some assholes” Jack shrugged. “I suffered the same thing, just mentally. I wasn’t always the keep to myself kind of guy. My self-esteem got bullied out of me in the middle school”

“Shit… That’s freaking awful, dude” Aster gave him a worried look.

“Tell me about it…” Jack muttered. “But don’t worry. I have you now”

Aster grinned and rubbed Jack’s shoulder in comfort. “True”

“This is for… me?” Jack looked wide-eyed at the art book Aster held out for him after he gave Jack the drawing of the brown pooka himself.

“Yup, take it. In case you miss me, this will remind you of us” Aster said, smiling softly.

Jack’s tears spilled even before he could feel them. “Fuck… Aster… tell me that you’ll thrive. Promise it to me you’ll be the best damn soldier ever!” Jack grabbed Aster’s hands holding his book, his eyes filled with pleading and pain.

Aster pulled Jack into one arm hug, pushing the book into Jack’s arm. “I promise. My dearest friend”

They both jumped as the car behind Aster honked, reminding them that this goodbye would have to be cut short. Aster reached for the rose pendant in front of his chest. “I’ll keep it in the best condition. Do the same for my art, okay?”

Jack nodded weakly.

“Goodbye, Jackalope Pyrefrost” Aster ruffled his head. “May we meet again when life allows it”

Jack said nothing. He wished he could have said the same thing. But it hurt so much. Too much.

“You’ll be okay, Mary… Just move with me, okay?” Jack crouched down on all four as he reassured Mary. Ice slowly cracking under her as she shook with fear.

“O-okay” She responded, her feet slowly moved paralleling Jack’s movement.

“Yes, like that…” Jack reached for her shepherd staff and gripped it firmly in his hands.

Sound of ice cracking reached his ears and Mary yelped out in fear. “J-Jack!”

“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Jack comforted her. He moved closer carefully to her. “Hop with me okay? Let’s play that hopping game you love”

“This isn’t the time for that, Jack!”

“Trust me, Mary” Jack said. “In the count of three? One…” He hopped closer to her.

Mary hesitated a little bit, but still played along. She hopped a little away from him, from the center of the pond. The cracks followed her, but Mary couldn’t notice. “Good job!” Jack gave out a laugh, and that made Mary smile a bit.

“All right! Two!” Jack hopped again, closer to her. She hopped again, but she landed too heavily this time and the crack dangerously spread swiftly to her.

“Three!!!” Jack reached for her with the crook of the staff, pulling her out of the cracks and trading his position with her. He fell against the cracks but he didn’t care. He had to check Mary first.

She stood up swiftly and grinned as she finally reached the edge of the pond with Jack’s help. But her grin fell as the ice under Jack broke and her pooka friend plunged into the icy water.

The moon shone brightly as if it acknowledged his death.

Jack gasped, startled by the sudden scene of death. His death.

He was a pooka! He and Bunny, Aster, were best friends! He saved Mary’s life! Things were making so much sense now that he had seen the memories…

“That was why he chose me…?” Jack asked, mostly to himself. Determination filled him. He needed to do something. He needed to fix his staff first.

Baby Tooth chirped curiously at him. Giving her a grin, he responded. “Story later, Baby Tooth. We have to save the children”

He pulled out the two sticks from his bag, holding them both in his hands. He connected the two and concentrated on mending the staff together. It didn’t take him long to mend it into one entire staff. Holding the staff, Mary’s staff, tightly in his grips as he stepped closer to the bars. “Think I can freeze and break it?” Jack asked Baby Tooth, who nodded in reply.

He tapped the iron bars with his staff, freezing them one by one before stepping back. He held out his staff and sent an ice blast into the bars; they shattered instantly by the force of his blast. “Hop in, Baby Tooth!” Jack opened the pouch in front of his hoodie and let the little tooth fairy fly in before taking off into the air.

He found his way into a room filled with cages of tooth fairies and boxes of teeth. The winter spirit rushed to one cage and opened the locked door. “Come on! Let’s go” He told the fairies, but none of them moved and mournfully responded to him.

“W-what’s wrong? None of you can fly?” One of them gestured at something behind him. He turned around to find a globe on the low floor of the room. “The lights…”

He moved closer to it, seeing each light gradually distinguished out. “They’re all going out…” He muttered with concern.

One light caught his eyes, it seemed to stay on longer than everyone else. Hopping on it to inspect, he realized immediately where the light was, and thus he also knew who the light was. “Jamie!” Hope filled his chest as he took off, finding his way out of the lair and to the Bennett house close to here.

He looked up at the moon, glaring a little at it. “We have to talk after this” He said before speeding up to his destination.

“Jack, I’m scared” Jamie told him. Jack crouched down to Jamie’s height, feeling familiar with the child’s expression.

“I know” He responded and smiled reassuringly. “But you’re gonna be all right. Trust me… How about we have a little fun?” The realization came to Jack like a truck. This was his center. Jack smirked as he conjured up a snowball in his hand. Time for fun.

“So what do you think, Jamie?” Pitch began. “Do you believe in the Boogey- AH!”

Jack had thrown a snowball into his face. Small laughter escaped the others as they witnessed the hilarious display. Looking around to find an escape route, he noticed a pile of discarded items suited for pseudo skateboards. “Now let’s go get your friends” He motioned at the pile as he told Jamie. They all got on their own fake skateboards, and then Jack commanded the wind to push them as he created an ice path. 

Locating the children’s homes was a piece of cake since he had known the kids of Burgess for a long time after all.

Everyone stood against Pitch Black, even the children. Despite only a few believers, the guardians gradually gained back their power and strength. The dream sand eventually filled the area as the kids kept turning nightmares back into good dreams. And, woo , did seeing Aster fighting after he had got his memories back make his still-exist crush burn bright.

“Jack, look out!” Jack whirled around to see Pitch swinging the black scythe at him, and Aster’s boomerang only reflected it a little. Pitch went for another attack, but a vine of sand came out of nowhere and grabbed his wrist before pulling him away with ease.

The four hurriedly follow him, seeing a swirl of dream sand and several spirals connected to it. Sandman had been resurrected.

Sandy made a quick work of knocking Pitch out before greeting them, then proceeded to deliver pleasant dreams.

While the kids were occupied with throwing snowballs at one another and other creatures, North approached him. “Your center?”

“Well, it took a while” Jack looked at the people having fun before him. “But I figured it out”

North tossed him his carved wooden baby Jack Frost doll for the center of a nesting doll. He gave North a smile, and the elder winked back at him. The old cossack then felt something cold hit his back, stunning him a bit. He turned around to see Caleb and Claude. The two kids then blamed the elf between them. Jack chuckled a bit as Santa joined in with them before dragging Aster into it as well.

Pitch stood up as he gained his consciousness. Everyone around him seemed to be having fun. “No…” He deadpanned. “You dare have fun in my presence!? I’m the Boogeyman and you will fear me!” He turned to grab Jamie, but the child just ran through him like he wasn’t even there. “Oh no…”

The guardians looked on as the Boogeyman fled to the forest with fear. Pitch then crashed into North shortly after he arrived at the frozen pond.

“Leaving the party so soon?” North asked mockingly.

“You didn’t even say goodbye” Tooth tossed him a quarter.

Pitch looked at it and then at her confusedly. “A quarter?”

Tooth answered that with a punch to his jaw, knocking him to the floor and taking out a tooth in his mouth. “That’s for my fairies” A few fairies squeaked angrily at him. 

“You can’t get rid of me!” Pitch stood up and lashed out at them. “Not forever! There will always be fear!”

“So what?” North shot back. “As long as one child believes, we will be here to fight fear”

Pitch smirked as he noticed a few Nightmares surrounding them. “Really? Then what are they doing here?” He motioned at the nightmares.

“Haha!” North laughed. “They can’t be my fear. I’m not afraid”

Jack then spoke up. “Looks like they smell your fear”

That did the job. Pitch tried to run, but it was too late. The Nightmares snatched him up and dragged him down into his lair. Needless to say, it was known among the guardians that Pitch wouldn’t be coming back soon.

Jack looked up at the moon and thought of his word to the moon a few hours ago. Maybe later. They could celebrate first. The guardians turned to him and then Tooth tackled him into a hug before pulling away as Baby Tooth chastised her.

They properly made him a guardian. Cheers echoed around Jack as he took the vow with no hesitation, knowing that he finally found where he was supposed to be. North kissing him on the cheek like a proud father felt weird, however.

“That’s my boy!” Aster shouted. That felt weird too, because he was just as old as Aster.

Well, what a night.

After they concluded the result of the incident and celebrated their victory and the addition to their team, everyone went back to their respective bases to take some rest. Jack figured that this was an excellent time to talk with Manny. (And did he hope the guy would start talking, because freaking hell, if he wouldn’t talk, Jack would rage)

When Jack finally arrived at his frozen pond, the moon shone brightly above him. “You better start talking,” Jack said to the moon as he stood in the center of the pond.

So, in conclusion, Manny had been cloaking Jack in a glamour all this time since he first woke up. He was afraid Jack being a pooka would attract the attention of Pitch and get manipulated. It kind of made sense, considering how vulnerable he was to every piece of information with no memories in the past. Making him a part of winter would be the safest bet, and it apparently worked. Pitch had known him but paid no mind to the winter spirit just like how he ignored most winter spirits.

Jack didn’t know if he wanted to take the glamour off now. There were so many things he needed to sort out before getting his true form back, such as Tooth’s curiosity about how he gained his memories back, and Aster, especially Aster.

Manny gave him a wristband to nullify the glamour magic when he put it on. “Thanks, Moon Man” The moon shone at him, showing the disapproval of the nickname. “You deserve it!”

Jack went to the tree hollow he hadn’t stepped in for years. He sat down and leaned against the wall, recalling the memories in his head, and smiled whether they were good or bad. 

A few days passed and Jack finally got used to the guardian work. He didn’t have much to do anyway, so he figured that he should sort things out right away. First, maybe with Tooth. He had to tell her how he gained his memories back because she said she felt how Jack seemed to change for the better like he had found another piece of himself. Power of the Guardian of Memory and all that jazz.

“Tooth!” He called out for her as he arrived.

“Jack?” Tooth appeared immediately, seeming to be busy.

“Is this a good time to visit?” He looked on as little fairies flew around the whole place.

“Well, I have two or three sections left to finish” Tooth replied. “If you want to wait, there is a garden a few levels up there”

“Okay” Jack nodded before floating up to the said garden.

It was about 10 minutes when she finally showed up in the garden. They took seats on the chairs beside the table in the center of the garden. “Beautiful garden you’ve got,” Jack told her.

“Oh, don’t be so humble!” Tooth giggled. “I haven’t been tending to it since the Pitch incident”

Jack chuckled softly before grabbing his bag from behind him and pulled out the artbook. “You asked me how I got my memories back”

Tooth looked at the book. “Oh? A book?”

“An art book, to be exact” Jack said before putting it on the table and pushing it to her. “Take a look, I didn’t get it at first, but it made so much sense after Baby Tooth helped me”

Tooth opened the first page and gasped as she saw a familiar figure in the drawing. “That’s Bunny!” She exclaimed.

Jack nodded. “Well, go on. Don’t say anything yet” He sat back and relaxed.

Tooth looked through each drawing at a decent pace and her confusion became more apparent as she looked through the book. She closed it and gave Jack an utterly confused look. “I… don’t think I get what it is trying to tell except that this is about Bunny and… his furry friend. What does it have to do with you?”

Jack smirked. “You see. I’m that furry friend”

Tooth stared at him with even more confusion. “O-okay?”

Jack sighed. “Pooka, that’s what Bunny and I are. Our home planet was invaded by Fearlings. I escaped in an evacuation pod and traveled through space to Earth. I spent a few weeks on Earth before I drowned in a pond. Then Manny turned me into Jack Frost by putting glamour magic on me. I think... Pitch was the one behind the invasion, so Manny tried to hide me by turning me into a winter spirit, the kind of spirit Pitch doesn’t care much about” 

“That’s… Wow” She let out a breath. “Does Bunny know?”

Jack shook his head. “Haven’t told him anything. I don’t know how he will react” He sighed and sunk down into the chair.

“You should! He will probably be happy to meet his friend again!” Tooth told him before her voice turned sad. “We’ve seen him in so much distress whenever he talked about his past, even though he didn’t let out much detail” 

Jack nodded in acknowledgement. “Wanna help me plan?” He asked the Tooth Fairy.

“Hah? No, I wouldn’t mind giving you a room. Everyone has a room here in my workshop!” North exclaimed. “But what’s this about Bunny and Jack, huh?”

“Well, Jack?” Tooth turned to him. Jack sighed lazily. So he had to explain everything, the same thing, four times.

They got to work as soon as Jack explained his situation and plan. He had to insist on North not decorating his room, and on sending the letter to the Easter Bunny instead. Tooth was the one who came up with the plan, so she helped him review it. Sandy turned up at the workshop later on and Jack had to explain again. The Sandman gave him two thumb ups and acted as his emotional support.

North wrote the letter accordingly to Jack’s words.

Dear Bunny

Visit the workshop. Jack has something to show you. It’s very important.

From North

“This must be the laziest letter I have ever written” North tied it to an owl and let it take the letter to Bunny with magic.

Jack chuckled. “Thanks, North”

North laughed heartily. “Anything for my friends!” He patted Jack on the shoulder.

“What is this about, North!?” Jack could hear Aster’s annoyed bellow as he entered the workshop. “The weather around here isn’t the best for me, ya know!?”

“Ah! My old friend! Come, Jack is waiting for you in a room down that hall. He has something very important to show you, I’m sure you’ll like it!” Very smooth, North.

Jack breathed in and out, calming himself down. It felt as if he was going to confess his feelings to Aster. But no, it was something much bigger than that… Or was it smaller than that? He sat down, leg crossed on the bed in the center of the room, Aster’s art book and the painting of Jack himself beside him, just tugged a little under his leg to hide it from Aster.

There were a series of knocks on his door. “Jack? Ya there, mate?”

Shit, Aster calling him mate, even if it was an Australian slang, made his blush uncontrollable 

“Y-yup! Come in!” Jack responded.

Aster opened the door into his room, his gaze wary as he looked at Jack. “North told me ya have something to show me?”

“Yeah, come sit” Jack patted a spot beside him. Aster gave a skeptical look but did as told.

“What’s this about?” Bunny asked as he sat beside him before frowning in annoyance. “If this is a prank, Jack-”

“Nope! None of that!” Jack hastily exclaimed. “Bunny… Um… Freaking hell, this is hard” He feared how Aster would react. They both, before Jack gained back his memories and became a Guardian, had blood bad. And he didn’t know how Aster would feel about him after this.

Aster seemed to notice his distress. “Hey, mate. Ya okay?” He began, concerned. “How about ya think one thing at a time yeah?”

Jack breathed in and out, again. He could do this. For the better. For them both. He reached beside him and grabbed both the art book and his painting. He placed them both in front of Aster. “Do you remember these?”

Aster looked closer at the two items and gasped loudly. His breathing stopped, hands slowly reaching for them. He looked at Jack’s painting first, muttering out Jack’s full name before checking the artbook thoroughly. Every page, every corner, he examined them closely and quickly. Only when he finished was he able to let out the breath he held in.

Aster’s eyes were full of grief and sadness as he looked at Jack. “W-where did ya find t-them?” He seemed so shaken up that Jack worried he might have gone too fast.

Jack reached out to pat Aster on his shoulder for comfort. “Bun- Aster, they have always been in the bag I always carry around. Only after I got my memories back that it all made sense”

“My name. How do ya know my name?” Aster asked again, a little more demanding now.

Jack dug into his hoodie’s front pouch and brought out the glamour nullifying band. “It’ll be easier to explain after this,” He said before giving the band to Aster and held out his wrist. “Would you do the honors?”

Aster gave him a look before sliding the band past Jack’s hand. Suddenly, light filled the room and blinded them both briefly. Only a few seconds passed when both of them could see again, Aster gasped at the sight before him. Sitting across from him was another pooka, replacing Jack’s place.

“W-w…” Aster couldn’t let out any sound as he looked at the pooka.

“Geez, Manny and his moonlight trick” Jack rubbed his eyes before taking in the sight of himself. Uh… what? “Aster, what’s the color of my fur!?” He asked the other pooka as he looked at himself once more. Why was he lighter!? And oh, the band crumbled into dust right away.

“Uh…” Aster seemed to be in a trance. Oh right, his explaination.

“Sheesh, right” Jack muttered to himself. He looked at Aster and grabbed his hands. “Manny may have bleached my fur, but I'm telling you right now. I’m Jackalope Pyrefrost. And I’m gonna kick you if you still don’t respond to me”

“...”

Jack started to get concerned. “Uh, Aster?”

“...”

“Aster, you dumbass, respond to me!” Jack grabbed Aster and shook him gently. That seemed to do the trick.

“...Jackalope?” Aster whispered.

“Yes, Aster Bunnymund. Jackalope Pyrefrost. Your friend!” Jack gave him his usual smile.

“Jackalope...” Aster slowly caressed Jack’s side, as if testing to see if he was real. “Y-yer real. Oh wonderful moon, yer real!”

“Oof!” Jack wasn’t prepared to get pulled into a bone-crushing hug. He felt wetness on his shoulder as Aster cried his eyes out. “T-too tight!” Aster relaxed a bit and pulled away, never stopped looking at him.

Jack caressed Aster’s cheeks, wiping away his tears. “I arrived at Earth through an evac pod three hundred years ago. You must have waited for so long… I’m- I’m sorry”

Nodding, his hands were still touching Jack softly. “Manny’s guardian brought me to Earth after the Fearlings war. I can’t accurately remember how long I’ve been here since Manny turned me into a spirit, but… I lost hope long ago” Then he seemed to realize something. “Why did Manny turn ya into Jack Frost?”

“He tried to keep Pitch away from manipulating me when I didn’t have any memories. Put glamour magic on me. That wristband deleted the glamour by the way” Jack replied. “And… I drowned in winter before becoming Jack Frost. So I guess that gave him an excuse to give me winter magic and bleach my colors”

Aster gave him a sympathized look. “I could’ve found you” Then his expression turned to a horrified one. “Shit, Jack… I hurt ya! I-”

“It’s okay! I forgive you” Jack reassured him. “You didn’t know. I didn’t know. It was unfortunate, but don’t blame yourself for it. There were these two spring spirits. They tried to burn your book, so I kinda lashed out and accidentally made a blizzard”

The bigger pooka growled after he heard that, then he asked Jack.  “Who are these two?”

Shrugging a little at him, Jack replied. “Don’t know. Don’t care too much about it. Let’s care about what’s happening right now, all right?”

Aster nodded before sighing happily. “So… ya did kept them in good conditions just like I asked you to”

Jack blushed. “Y-yeah, except for a bit of a slight burn from when… yeah”

“I kept yer pendant in the Warren. I… can’t bare looking at it without feeling like I failed ya”

Jack grinned softly. “Do you think you can look at it now?”

“I think I can now” Aster leaned in and their foreheads touched softly. Jack blushed hard at how intimate it felt.

The two stayed in the comfortable silence, feeling each other’s touches again after a long, too long, time.

Jack broke the silence first. “So you didn’t answer my question”

“Question?”

“Yeah, Aster, I asked you what was my color” Jack giggled at the dumb-founded expression on Aster’s face.

“You’re white, pure white, and your markings are soft blue” Aster told him.

“Do I look good?” Jack asked more.

“Your brown fur gave off a strong and nature feeling, but you look a lot softer now, and even prettier” Wow, Aster, that sounded like a flirt. “Also, you have your winter coat even though it’s already spring now. Just makes you look much cuter”

Jack sputtered as he checked himself once more. Yup, he still had more fluffs around his neck down to his chest, and his overall fur seemed a lot longer than normal. “Ugh… I blame Manny, anyway, can we go and meet the guys now. I bet they’re anticipating on what happened right now”

“Wait, you planned this with them, didn’t you?” Aster gave him a skeptical look.

“Hm… Did I~” Jack responded mischievously and got off the bed and Aster followed suit, sighing at Jack’s tone.

Aster collected his book and the painting of Jack before they both went out of the room and walked side by side to the globe room. The others noticed them right away as they went inside.

“Jack!? You’re so cute!” Tooth said as she looked at him excitedly.

“Haha! You’re still short even when being a pooka, huh?” North bellowed. 

Sandy signed something about congratulation.

Jack gave North an annoyed glance. “Yeah, but Sandy is shorter. And I wasn’t all white like this. Manny thought it would be cool to bleach my fur white”

“I think you’re really pretty! Right? Bunny?” Tooth asked Aster, and he gave her an amused snort.

“Yeah, white looks honestly good on ya, mate”

“Ugh!”

The two pookas settled down in Aster’s bedroom in the Warren. Jack looked around and found canvas hanging everywhere in the room. “Wow, this is messier than your dorm back in high school” He commented.

“Well, I hardly have anyone visiting so I can decorate however I want” Aster shrugged before sitting on his bed, gesturing for Jack to sit beside him.

Jack hopped onto the bed, sitting beside Aster. “Wow, the nostalgia”

Aster laughed a little. “I know right”

“So, you wanna catch me up on how you become an Aussie?” Jack asked, wriggling his brows at the other.

“Ah… well, sometimes in the past, I talked to the locals. I just kind of picked up their accent. Does this accent confuse you?” Aster wrapped his arm around Jack before pulling him into a side hug. Jack understood why Aster was so touchy-feely right now. Poor guy had been alone without another pooka for ages.

“Hm, not really. I-it’s mostly the slangs that confuse me. But I understand most of them by looking a-at the context” Jack said, trying to keep up with the flow of the conversation because he was pretty distracted by how Aster touched him. It felt so intimate, so much more intimate than they ever had been.

Aster smirked at him. “Really? What if I say, yer a drongo, mate?” 

Jack gave him a look. “That’s cheating! You gotta provide me a context first!”

Aster laughed. “Don’t worry, Jack. Yer not a drongo”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Aster laughed even more at Jack’s annoyance. Jack started to laugh along too as Aster carried on laughing. They both looked like two crackheads, laughing alongside each other over a little hilarious conversation. 

After they calmed down, Aster stood up and went to get a wooden box for Jack. “It’s in here?” Jack asked as he opened the box, finding his rose pendant inside it. Jack picked it up and ran his hands along its surface. “You kept it well,” He said to Aster.

Aster nodded. “I always carried it around in the military. The guys thought I was engaged with someone. It was hilarious”

“So you stopped when you came to Earth?” Jack held Aster’s hand as he asked.

Nodding in response, Aster took the pendant from Jack’s hand and put it on. “Too hurt to look at it, and the Guardian work has me running around more. So I kept it in the box…” He looked at Jack with a glint unknown to Jack. “But since you’re here now, I’ll wear it again”

Jack beamed. “That’s sweet”

Aster chuckled. “No! You’re sweet!”

Jack blushed. That flirt was too much for him to handle. 

It was almost midnight when they both decided to go to sleep after playing some cards and catching up on each other. 

“Take my bed, I can go sleep on the couch” Aster said after they collected all the cards.

“Hell no, I can take the couch just fine. Not like I’ve been sleeping in bed all this time” Jack said which upset Aster a bit. “Well, it’s the truth. I’m a wanderer. I literally can sleep anywhere, even on a tree”

Aster shook his head. “No, you deserve to sleep on a comforter when you’re with friends. I’m sure the others think the same”

“Well, we’ll have to share then. Because I don’t want you to sleep on the couch” 

Aster hesitantly agreed, then they went into the bedroom. Aster got on the bed and made some space for Jack to lay on. Aster pulled the blanket up to cover them both and then wished him a good night before turning away from Jack.

Jack’s heart was hammering so hard that he thought Aster probably could feel it. Jack turned away and clenched his eyes shut, forcing himself to sleep. Now that they had properly reunited, Jack couldn’t help but feel as if his crush wasn’t just a crush anymore. It had turned to love a long time ago, even before the invasion. He was just too oblivious to realize it at that time.

Should he tell Aster? He wasn’t sure. He was afraid of rejection. Surely, Aster used to have someone else before Jack even became a spirit, and Jack couldn’t help but feel as if he would selfishly replace that someone if he ever let Aster know.

Jack laid there like a stone as he lost himself in his train of thoughts. 

Until he felt a pair of arms sneak around his torso and pulled him into the warmth. His limbs felt too relaxed and eyelids too heavy to react to it. But he knew what was happening, mostly. He felt Aster breathing against his neck as their legs tangled, his arms holding Jack closely.

“Miss ya so much…” Aster whispered. “Thought I’d never see the love of my life anymore…”

Was Jack dreaming? Yeah, he was definitely dreaming. Or maybe he wasn’t? His mind felt foggy, unable to distinguish between reality and dream.

“Love ya, Jackalope. Really love ya”

Jack, in his sleep drunken state, replied groggily. “Luv you too…” This dream felt so good. Fantastic. Like butterflies in his stomach. 

He felt Aster nuzzling against the back of his neck. The physical affection slowly lulled Jack into his own sleep as the white pooka relaxed completely in Aster’s embrace.

Jack woke up to the sounds of chirping. He rubbed his eyes and tried to sit up, only to find himself trapped in arms and legs. He turned his head around to find Aster holding onto him like he was a doll.

Uh… So it was not a dream? Or it was, but they were just restless sleepers?

He was confused.

Aster stirred and groaned out as he tried to shake the sleepiness off. “Morning, Jack…” He mumbled out.

“U-ummmm” Jack squirmed.

“O-oh!” Aster quickly pulled away. “S-sorry”

“I-it’s fine”

They both stayed still in an awkward silence. None of them said anything and avoided each other’s gazes.

It was Aster who began. “About what happened just now… I- I’m sorry. I’ve got no excuse”

Jack frowned. “What does that mean?” He asked and scooted closer. “Did you do that on purpose?”

Aster swallowed hard. “W-well, yes” He didn’t say anything more.

Jack bit the inside of his cheeks. The awkward situation was just too much. He had to tone it down. “Not that I mind! I actually like it, but just... Why?” He remembered the dream from last night, but he was getting confused about whether it was a dream or reality.

The expression on Aster’s face was unreadable as he looked at Jack. He seemed to be making up his mind on something. Meanwhile, Jack was also thinking about what he dreamt or felt last night. 

“I realized that I had a crush on ya just a few weeks before graduation” Aster replied. Jack froze the moment he heard those words. “It wasn’t fair for ya, for both of us, so I didn’t say anything and I was hoping that the crush would soon go away. But it didn’t. It grew into something more. And then war broke out. I’ve never moved on from my feelings for ya”

Jack fell silent. Not what he was expecting. Wow. He then thought of how he had been holding himself back. It was unfortunate for both of them. They could have become something much more than best friends. “Wow…” Jack let out a breath.

“Yeah…”

“Is what happened last night… real, then?” Jack asked him.

Aster looked fluttered. “You were awake!?”

Jack beamed and giggled. “That’s good!” And earned himself a confused look.

“Good? I- uh… don’t get it?”

Jack grabbed both of Aster’s hands with his own. “I did say that I loved you back, didn’t I” Jack then frowned a bit in confusion. “Or did I not? I’m confused…”

Aster seemed to be even more fluttered. “Yes, ya did! But I thought ya were just dreaming, so I didn’t think much about it!”

“Well, I meant it!” Jack told him suddenly. Nothing to be hidden now. “I’ve had a crush on you since, like, even before I joined that training club. Like yours, it grew more and more into love”

Aster had a cute, dumbfounded expression plastered on his face as Jack confessed to him. Jack laughed at him before continuing. “I’m in love with you, Aster Bunnymund!”

Aster promptly let out a slight laugh before it turned into a series of laughter. “Oh moon, this- we’ve been pining for more than eras!”

Jack cringed. “Geez, that sentence makes me feel old”

“We all are, snowflake” Aster chuckled. “So… ya wanna do something now?”

“Kiss me already, cottontail”

“Gladly”

Shivers went down Jack’s spine as he felt Aster’s lips on his own, pulling away only a brief second before going for more, again and again. Aster pushed him down onto the bed then licked his lips, asking for more than just lips touching. They both went full-on making out after that.

They made out for a few more minutes until Jack pulled away, gasping for breath. “That’s… the best feeling ever,” He said, panting a bit, his heart pounding against his chest.

“Was that your first kiss?” Aster gave him a smirk.

Jack blushed. “Yup, what about you?”

“Not my first, but this is the best one” Aster kissed him once more. “Love ya, Jackalope”

“Love you too, Aster” Jack smiled serenely.

For the first time, he felt complete. Screw his color blindness.