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All the cold in the world is inside him, comes from him. His heart pumps ice water throughout his body, slow and steady. His breath mists like dry ice in anything warmer than the silky air of winter. He can’t remember the feeling of warmth, of flushing from heat, pressing close to someone to fight off the cold. He is the cold.
Jamie hugs him and Jack feels cruel when his tiny body trembles against him, teeth clicking from open-mouthed shivers. He steps back, tries not to touch the little boy’s skin, stretches his mouth in what he hopes is a grin as he hops onto the side of North’s sleigh.
North surrounds himself with snow and ice and air that stings. Tooth flutters like a hummingbird at high altitudes, as does Sandy. If they don’t enjoy the cold they tolerate it but still they don’t touch him, twist about him like his skin is made of flame. It hurts but in all of three hundred years he’s been touched thrice, Babytooth so small and soft in his hands, Jamie’s arms around his hips with his small hands gripping at his sweater, Tooth blind and silky smooth in her happiness. He’s used to it.
He hides it well but Bunny notices, creeps closer and closer every day until they stand hip to elbow, sit with foot atop paw. Neither guardian speaks of it, Jack afraid of it stopping, Bunny afraid of rejection. It’s all perfectly casual until Jack starts touching, scratches his fingers down to the fluff of tail, up to the twitch of ears.
Jack nearly falls apart when Bunny starts reciprocating, presses his paws to the frost covering his skin, hardly seems to notice the cold on his calloused but still sensitive paw pads. He follows when Jack flees, sprints along in his tunnels, follows the tendrils of chill that flow in the spring air. He springs from the earth beneath the tree Jack is hiding in, easily hops up to knock him back to the ground.
Bunny presses him into the grass, lets himself cover the boy completely, nuzzles under his chin until he feels some of the cold slip away, his sadness slip away. He feels his tail twitching but doesn’t try to stop it, pushes into the drag of cool fingers down his spine, can’t help the press of his tongue to Jack’s jaw.
Their first kiss is awkward from Jack’s inexperience and Bunny’s muzzle but it cools Bunny’s mouth and warms Jack’s cheeks and they settle into it easily.