((I have a tumblr account meant for Rise of the Guardians fics. So far none of my posts show up in the tags but I'll leave my identity here in case anyone is interested: colorfulwordsofblackandwhite ))

"What're you doin' here, Frost?" Bunnymund called over, shifting his weight from one large foot to the other, tapping his liberated one lightly on the ground to count down his patience with the sprite. Jack had substance with children now, blasted show pony should have trotted off to a new spotlight by now but he had been lingering since something along the lines of normalcy returned to the world. Jack touched one of the flowers with his fingertip, a coating of frost spidered its way through the petal veins to the base of the bud but he lifted his finger with a smart little smirk on his lips the moment the bunny appeared panicked that the flower would perish. The frost melted away and the animal eased a little lighter, returning his glare on the imp. "You haven' answered me yet."

"Oh, I know that." He shrugged, moving away from the flowers with wide, languid steps, swinging the end of the staff side to side in front of him with a casual swing of his arm. He spun on the ball of his foot to face him again, setting the end of the staff down in the grass and leaning on it. "I didn't feel like answering."

"Don' you have a pond to freeze somewhere?" he grumbled, lowering himself onto all fours and turning tail on the fresh Guardian. He hopped away, putting a little extra oomph in his kick off to make sure he got enough speed to increase the distance between Jack and himself.

"Oh, come on, Mundbun, I just came to have a look around. I didn't have time when I was here last!" Jack called after him, Bunnymund shuddering at the manipulation of his name the brat came up with. Still bounding off of the rises and walls of his tunnel home, he managed to look back behind him to see the little frostbite skimming along the walls and ceiling, leaving an icy trail in his wake while he tried to catch up to him.

"Well, I ain' here to give ya a tour!" he shouted back, "I have work to do!"

Coming to a stop, he straightened up, dusting himself off with a few quick brushes of his hands. Jack appeared, sliding to a stop beside him with another smug little grin. He rolled his eyes, plucking a boomerang free of its strap and flipping it about in his hand. Padding around Jack, he hooked it into the hood of his sweater and twisted it around, plucking him free from the ground and proceeded to carry him towards his network of tunnels where he planned to dispel the nuisance. Jack protested, flailing his limbs slightly and shooting a glare at the rabbit but Bunnymund was undeterred until the little devil jabbed down on one of his feet with the end of his staff and froze it to the ground.

"Cold foot!" he gasped, staggering and releasing him, sheathing the tool and crouching to rub at his frozen foot. "You little—"

"Easter's over now." Jack reminded him, pulling his staff to rest it on his shoulder as he strolled in a circle around him. "Isn't it time you just kick back and relax? North's got his toys to build; Tooth has teeth to gather, and Sandy's back on dream duty. You're the only one not on a deadline."

"An' what does that mean? I'm the only one expendable for your mischief?" he asked, tugging at his foot to free it from the ground. He couldn't feel his foot at all now and he hated that feeling! Jack seemed to be pleased by this, or maybe he was just smiling like that because he had guessed right and he really was there to cause him misery now that he had to wait for next year before he could properly begin egg generation. Giving his foot another tug, he looked at the teen's feet while he made another snarky circle around him. The normally pale skin was turning pink if he was seeing correctly. Had he walked through some dye earlier in his skating around? The rabbit couldn't smell it on him; he flicked his eyes back up at Jack's face. Beyond the smirk he was looking a little red in the face as well. Maybe it wasn't dye after all. His skin was irritated by something. "Frostbite, what's happenin' to your feet?"

Jack paused, the first trace of discomfort in his expression as he looked down at them. He stabbed his staff into the ground, a flower of frost crackled across the patch of soil it found while the teen hovered free of the ground. He alighted onto the top of the staff, crouching on top of it. "I don't know. It's pretty hot down here. Maybe it's disagreeing with me."

"All the more reason for you to high-tail it outta here, mate." He said, waving off at the tunnels and sighing in relief when the ice began to melt from the mentioned heat of his underground home. "Spring isn't your season."

"I could handle Tooth's world just fine." He said defensively, the furrow of his brow proving that he had been caught in his discomfort. Bunnymund's home was deep underground, heated by the geothermal energy that kept his world grassy and filled with life in spite of being far below the surface. It was warm here, comfortable enough for him but probably hot for people like North and Jack who normally inhabited colder climates. Jack's time here might have been limited if his skin was flush with the burn of contrasting heat and cold.

"You remember that burning feeling you would get in your hands when you played around in the bitter cold all day and then tried to warm them too fast?" Bunnymund asked, pulling his foot free. Jack nodded, dangling a foot from his perch on his staff. The rabbit flicked a short finger at him, "That's what's happenin' to you, Jackie. You're made for the winter and being in higher temperatures with such a low body temp is going to be unhealthy for ya, mate. So do us both a favor. Go find winter and stay there."

Frost laughed, the bunny kicking his staff, knocking it out from under him and sending him to the ground with a thud. The teen sat upright abruptly, raising his hands and staring at his angered palms, red from the heat of the earth on his skin. For a moment there was a look of panic in his face that made the rabbit nearly regret knocking him down. Whatever flicker of fear that was there was suddenly gone again as Jack grabbed his staff, his palms cooling back to their ghostly white at the contact with the stick. Lifting from the ground, he corrected himself, lingering over Bunnymund's head while he looked to the tunnels that the bunny had been pointing him at since he arrived.

"I was getting bored down here anyway." He shrugged it off. "But you should really come and check out my work sometime, Mund. Let loose, have some fun once in a while."

"You would know all abou' fun, baby guardian." He snickered, "It's your callin' after all."

"Memories, Hopes, Dreams, and Wonder, had to fit a little fun in there somewhere, right?" Jack grinned, zipping off to the tunnels. "Later, Kangaroo, see you in another forty years!"

"Too soon, Ice mop!"