Chapter One

Without a sound, Jack watches the children playing in the town center in the snow. From his vantage point on top of a nearby building, he can see his first believer, Jamie Bennett, playing with his friends and throwing snowballs at each other. He smiles to himself as he thinks about the young brunette boy and how he'd changed his life.

He watches fondly while Jamie laughs as he's pelted once again by a snowball. As the boy turns to make ammunition of his own, he notices the Winter Spirit lost in thought, perched on a roof. Smiling, he throws the packed snow towards the older boy.

Not deterred in the slightest that he isn't even close, he calls out, "Jack!"

Jack can't help but chuckle when the packed ball of snow falls well short of his position. With a big grin, he jumps from the roof and lightly lands beside Jamie in a gust of cold wind. "What's up, squirt?" Jack asks, dumping an armful of snow on the boy's head, smirking.

An involuntary shiver races up Jamie's spine at the sudden cold air, but he ignores it as snow is dumped on him. Laughing as he shakes his head to expel the frigid powder, he gives the older boy a brilliant smile. Then, fast as lightning, he brings his arm forward and throws a snowball into Jack's face. "You're it!" he screams, then runs as fast as he can back toward the other kids.

Jack grins as he wipes the snow from his face before taking off after the boy, creating his own arsenal of snow balls with his staff as he runs.

Seeing her brother being chased by Jack, Sophie's eyes light up as she runs over to join the fun, abandoning her half-finished snowman. She giggles as she makes her sloppy, lopsided snowballs. She's delighted when she tosses one at Jack and it hits the boy on the chest.

"Why you..." Jack rumbles, his eyes mischievous and grinning as he lobs some of his own snowballs. The little girl giggles as one of his snowballs deliberately misses her brother's face by a couple inches.

Jamie squeals as the snow flies dangerously close to his face, turning on his heel to narrowly avoid it. He slides on the slippery ground and scoops up another ball of snow as he scrambles to his feet. Darting behind Cupcake, he uses her as a human shield, throwing the ball toward the fast approaching Guardian. At the large girl's growl, however, he quickly changes his tactic and runs to Sophie, deciding to help her in her own assault.

Jamie dashes over to his little sister, arms loaded with a dozen snowballs. Coming up beside her, he lays them on the ground and smirks as he grabs one in each hand, eyes sparkling as much as Jack's. "You ready, Soph?"

Sophie nods as she mimics her brother, one snowball in each hand as she turns to face Jack.

Jack quirks an eyebrow, wondering just what the young duo are up to, though he's sure he already knows. He comes to a halt a ways away from the siblings, watching them with dancing ice-colored eyes.

Returning the girl's nod with a smile, Jamie turns to Jack and throws one snowball, quickly followed by the next. Once a hand is emptied, he scoops up another to pelt the older boy with, keeping up a constant flurry of snow hurtling toward him.

The little girl throws both at once, one going wide, the other straight at Jack. She continues throwing like that, two snowballs at a time, with her brother.

Jack's eyes grow wide as he's suddenly pelted with snow, and throws a few of his own snowballs back in return, but it's nothing compared to the number the younger siblings throw at him. While Jamie steadily keeps the snowballs coming, Sophie's strategy gets more thrown at him. Jack laughs, a happy sound, as he attempts to dodge a few of the snowballs but can't avoid them all.

After several minutes of their relentless attack, Jamie ceases his fire to give a glare at the older boy, though it loses a lot of it's ferocity with the wide grin plastered to his face. "Surrender!" he yells in his best commanding voice. "You stand no chance against our combined forces!"

"Yeah! Combi... um..." Sophie's face scrunches up as she tries to sound like her brother. Shrugging, she continues throwing her snowballs.

"Never!" Jack shouts, waving his staff and causing a burst of wind to knock a bunch of snow off of a tree branch that hung over Jamie and Sophie's heads.

Jamie manages a high-pitched squeak before he's buried in the snow. Quickly clawing his way to the surface, he pops his head out before bursting through the rest, arms filled with snow ready to be packed together. Taking off at a full sprint toward Jack, he bellows, "Charge!"

Following Jamie's lead, Sophie scrambles up and trails after him on much shorter legs, her arms filled with snow.

Jack laughs as the two run toward him. Instead of running from them, he fills his own arms with snow and charges at them as well.

Seeing the other boy isn't going to back down, Jamie squeezes the snow in his arms tightly to his chest, pressing it into a large clump. Once he gets within a few feet of Jack, he hurls the snowball behemoth with a grunt, effectively tripping in the process.

Forgetting her original reason for running with the snow, Sophie giggles at the sight of her brother sprawled out face first in the snow and runs over to him, dumping her armload of snow on his head. She giggles like mad before flopping over in the snow beside Jamie.

Jack watches the siblings, laughing at the little girl turning on her fallen brother. Standing over the pair, Jack opens his arms over the two, effectively covering both brother and sister in his white powder.

Slowing pushing himself back up through the snow covering him, Jamie turns to his sister. "You little...traitor!" he yells. Flinging himself at her, he begins tickling her. He can barely stop laughing enough to get out, "You're supposed to be on my side, Sophie!"

"Your side!" Sophie repeats through her giggles, squirming in the snow from her brother tickling her. Her blond hair splays around her head as she wiggles.

Jack jumps in to help Sophie, tickling Jamie who still has some snow in his hair.

Jamie yelps as Jack pounces on him, squirming in an attempt to get the older boy off of him. "So-Sophie, help!"

Jack lets the little girl push him off of Jamie, and she tries to tickle him. Not as ticklish as the children, Jack grabs Sophie by the waist and lifts her into the air over his head. The little girl has a huge grin on her face as she straightens her arms and legs as if she's flying, giggling the whole time.

Jamie sighs in relief as Jack's attention is turned toward his sister instead. He laughs as he watches the pair, but movement behind them catches his eye, causing him to gasp excitedly. The ground a few yards away opens into a large hole, and out pops a large rabbit sporting boomerangs and a sash of egg-shaped bombs.

"Oi, oi," Bunnymund says in his thick Australian accent. "Don't be stealin' my Ankle Bitah now, Frostbite."

With a grin Jack turns his head to look at the giant rabbit. "No one's taking her, Easter Kangaroo." Jack says, gently placing Sophie down on the soft snow before getting up and brushing the snow off of his clothing.

"Bunny!" Sophie screams before running over to Bunnymund, hugging his leg and getting snow on him.

If looks could kill, the glare sent Jack's way would have the young Winter Spirit bursting into flames. His fierce expression softens, however, as he extracts Sophie from his legs and places her atop his shoulders. Patting at the snow clinging to his fur with a paw, the other firmly around one of the girl's ankles, he says, "You've gotten big since Eastah, haven't you? Won't be long 'til you're as big as me!"

"Big as Bunny." Sophie repeats smugly, playing with his ears.

Jack snorts as he watches the two, still hardly able to believe how gentle the aggressive rabbit is with the little girl.

At hearing Jack's laugh, the glare returns. "Oi, don't make me come ovah there, Frostbite. I'm in a bad enough mood as it is."

"Ok, ok." Jack says, his hands raised in defeat as he tries, unsuccessfully, to stifle his laughter. "What brings you here to Burgess? You guys don't normally leave your places unless it's something important or your holidays, and Easter isn't for another couple months."

Jack bends over to retrieve his staff from the ground.

"Got a message from North," answers the Pooka gruffly. "Says he has somethin' ta tell us. Whatevah it is, doesn't sound good."

"Let me guess, his stomach is talking to him again." Jack muses, his smile pinched. Last time his stomach had done that all of the Guardians had nearly been destroyed, along with the happiness of children everywhere. With that thought in mind, Jack's gaze slides over to Jamie for a second before returning to Bunny.

Not sure exactly what's going on, Jamie meets Jack's brief gaze, cocking his head to the side in silent confusion.

Bunny lets out a sigh, knowing exactly where Jack's train of thought has taken him. "I think that's only part of it this time, mate." His paws tighten gently on Sophie's ankles as he continues. "This news is from Manny."

"Manny?" Jack feels almost as confused as Jamie looks. For 300 years, even after becoming a Guardian, the Man in the Moon has never once spoken to him.

Shrugging his shoulders, just enough that it lifts Sophie up, but doesn't threaten to dislodge her from her perch, Bunny answers, "North wants us up at his place so he can tell us what he said. Sounded pretty urgent too".

Jack nods abruptly and frowns, not happy about leaving his winter fun for Guardian business. "Sorry Jamie, sounds like I have to go for a bit." Jack says, crouching in front of the young boy and ruffling his brown hair.

"...Okay," Jamie says, trying and failing to keep the disappointment from his voice. "You'll come back to play once you're finished, right Jack?"

"Of course! We'll have a bigger and even better snowball fight than today." Jack smiles, trying to keep the uncertainty from his voice. If this time is as bad as the last time Manny needed the Guardians, there's a possibility he won't be returning to Burgess...

Brightening at that, Jamie beams. "Okay! I'll have an even better trap waiting for you, so come back soon!"

Reaching up, Bunnymund carefully lifts the girl off his shoulders, holding her out in front of him at eye level. "Awright, Ankle Bitah, I gotta run. I'll come pick you up before Eastah so you can help me paint my eggs, so you be good 'til then, yeah?"

"Eggs! Eggs!" Sophie chants happily, bouncing in Bunny's hold.

Chuckling quietly, Bunny brings Sophie in for a hug, gently squishing her tiny body against his soft fur.

Jamie returns the hug Jack gives him, ignoring the frigid temperature of the older boy as he clings to the blue hoodie.

After several moments, Bunny finally pulls the small girl away from him and sets her on the ground once more. Keeping a paw on her head, he looks over to his fellow Guardian. "We gotta get going, mate."

Jack turns his blue eyes on Bunny as he pulls away from Jamie, reluctant to leave. "I assume we're taking your rabbit holes?"

Tapping his foot on the ground, Bunny smirks as he replies, "Of course. Fastest way ta travel". He steps back as a hole appears in the ground, motioning for Jack to hop in.

Jack follows, trying to ignore his unease as he jumps down after Bunny, tumbling through the tunnel.

Jamie waves as he watches the pair disappear into the hole, a flower popping up from the newly reformed ground, and tries to push down the sudden wave of unease about Jack leaving.

Speeding through the tunnels, Bunny's ears suddenly twitch as he skids to a halt in front of the younger boy. "Oi, you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Jack grumbles, nearly plowing straight into Bunny. "I can't hear anything." Jack watches Bunny, gripping his staff a little tighter as he becomes more alert.

Bunny's ears move around constantly, straining to pinpoint the strange sound's location. "Sounds like...thundah," he mumbles, sounding more like a question.

"Thunder?" Jack questions. "We shouldn't hear thunder this far underground." Jack's eyebrows are pushed together as he tries to think of why they'd be hearing thunder.

Scrunching his face up in concentration, Bunnymund turns his focus to the vibrations now running through the ground of the tunnels. He kneels down on his haunches, placing a forepaw in the soft grass to get a better feel of the distant movement. Then, without warning, he hops up and whirls to face Jack, breathing out a frantic, "Nightmares..."

Jack curses under his breath as he nearly falls back on his butt, startled by Bunny's sudden reaction. "Nightmares? I thought we got rid of them, though," Jack says, unable to stop the panic from coming out in his voice. Eyes wide, he stares down the tunnel behind Bunny.

"So did I, so why," Bunny starts, only to be cut off by an ear shattering screech. He snaps his head to stare into the tunnel behind Jack, ears standing straight up and body tense. Moving toward them at an unbelievable speed are several of the dark horses, their eyes gleaming orbs in the thick wall of black.

The Pooka turns on his heel, ready to sprint the rest of the way to the safety of Santoff Claussen. He only manages two steps before a dark tendril reaches out from the shadow of the tunnel, wrapping itself tightly around his neck before slamming him into the wall, hard. He slides down to the ground as he's unceremoniously released, trying desperately to take oxygen into his burning lungs.

A dark chuckle reverberates throughout the now enclosed space, more black sand moving in toward the Winter Spirit.

"You didn't really think you could get rid of me, did you, Jack?"

A/N: So, here we have the beginning of a new story by Anime Angel Alchemist and myself. It's originally a RP between the two of us, so if there are any inconsistencies, POV confusion, or if anyone is a bit OOC, it's because of that. Don't let that deter you, though. It's a great story, and updates will be every week (life permitting) since the whole thing's already written.

The title for this story comes from the song Hold Me Now by RED. I highly recommend you check it out, since it was a great inspiration for this fic. The cover art was made by me.

Let us know what you think!