Do you stop believing in moon just because the sun comes up?
It was the last thing he remembered her saying before he went under. One minute she was giggling, safe on the ice where it was sturdy beneath her feet, her breath wheezing passed the gap in her teeth; the next, she was screaming his name, and he was fighting for air. He could've sworn he had felt someone grabbing his cloak and pulling him under, whispering words of triumph to the moon.
The darker and deeper it got, the colder it became, and suddenly breathing hurt, so he stopped altogether. He could hear someone whispering again in the depths, this time closer to his ear. And in the dark, there was a grin of white teeth and yellow eyes that would've frightened him, if the water wasn't already suffocating.
"It'd be so easy, Jack... Just let go."
There was another voice, far away, calling his name with desperation in their voice, but he couldn't find enough energy to care. It was dark, and it was cold, and I was scared.
He hadn't done it for attention, or just because he felt like starting a blizzard. He hadn't even known he done it, when it happened. He barely remembered even now, after so many years of trying to simply forget it, until the giant kangaroo brought it up again. 'You're not still mad about that, are ya?' The kangaroo just glared; Jack knew he wasn't forgiven, he knew it the moment it happened that he never would be. He wanted to protest, to say it wasn't his fault, he hadn't know what he was doing at the time. But who would believe him? People couldn't even see him.
He remembered watching Bunny hop around with those giant idiot ears of his, hiding eggs and whatnot for the children to find. Hiding on the roof of a large church was something Jack wasn't proud of, especially with how creepy he felt doing it, but he couldn't help himself. Children all around were happy, because of Bunny, and they knew who to thank. A toddler, probably no older than four, went up to the kangaroo and started pulling on his ears like he was an average, everyday rabbit he saw in the grass. It made him so angry, and hurt, and sad, and he didn't know what to do to make himself feel better. For nearly two hundred years he's been walking alone, with no one to guide him or give him company, and this arrogant kangaroo comes along and gets a toddler pulling at his ears?
Jack remembered jumping down from the church to try again, for the umpteenth time, just to see if they could see him now, maybe with Bunny near by. But when he called for a little boy in the corner, laughing and leading him to a golden egg hidden amongst the blades of grass near the trees with a flurry of snow... He wasn't thanked. He wasn't even looked upon. Two hundred years of lonliness and bitterness just welled up inside him, and with each look upon an excited child with an egg in their hand just hurt to watch. He screamed at them, jumped in front of their face, and even tried to grab one with his pale fingers, but they just slipped right through.
"Why won't you look at me!?"Â he had cried, like they were doing it all on purpose.
It started to snow until the ground turned to ice, and the roofs of every building were covered with white. The lashing of the wind sounded more like screaming, and if anyone had known the truth, they would've known it was just this scared little spirit hiding behind a church crying at the injustice of it all. The snow didn't stop for weeks, and a lot of people got sick, some too afraid to even come outside. He had ended Easter Sunday almost as soon as it began, but a part of him wasn't sorry for it. He could hear the sound of the kangaroo's weird projectile thing swishing in the air right towards him, but he wasn't sorry. It was the first time that Bunnymund had really payed any attention to him at all, and it was the first form of attention he got in centuries. That's how the whole 'try to sneak into North's pole and steal some toys' came about, or how 'let's smash all of Bunny's eggs just to get a laugh out of some kids.' It kept him entertained for a few years.
He could still remember, more vividly than most, the moon the very night of the blizzard. No one can really see it, covered by storm clouds, but Jack could. The face on the moon looked disappointed.
"Yeah, yeah," Jack said without any real care, waving his stick along the stems of flowers that froze at the touch. "I'm a bad kid. What are you gonna do, Lunar, make me invisible?"
A glimmer reflected on the moon, and Jack scoffed sadly. "Too late."
After that, he just tried to forget, but it looked like Bunny hadn't. He guessed that was just too much to ask for.
He was a Guardian now, and the very idea seemed laughable sometimes. But it gave him a home and friends, it made people believe in him, and he wasn't about to do something stupid to ruin that. But sometimes a spirit of fun had to do what they gotta do, and that involved lots of snow on a particularly important day for Bunnymund. Again. Except this time it was intentional. "Look, Kanga, it wasn't mean. You'll have to blame this one all on mother nature this time."
To Jack's immense surprise, a snowball slammed into his face from the side, and Bunnymund's laughter rocked through Jack like the shaking of an earthquake. He could hear kids laughing somewhere, finding eggs in the snow seemingly a better idea than just grass, so the giant kangaroo didn't seem to angry at him this time. At least the snow wasn't as bad as '68, Jack had to admit.
"You're gonna pay for that, you giant rodent!"
"Rodent!? What did you just call me?"
"You heard me, kangaroo!" A fight broke out. Balls of snow were tossed, a leg had been frozen, a boomerang hit Jack's eye, and a few whiskers were froze off. But still, even as Jack was getting attacked by a giant rabbit, and he swore that he heard the moon laughing at him, he wouldn't change it for the world. He belonged somewhere for once. He had a family. Even if a part of that family was a rabid animal, as he constantly reminded Bunny.
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