Easter Shenanigans

In the vast underground tunnel system that the Easter Bunny called home, Nat sat on a rock in the lush green grass, watching with little interest as the parade of eggs tottered by to be painted. Easter was around the corner, so Bunny was busy preparing for the holiday; it was also his turn to guard her, but since he was so swamped in decorating the eggs, Jack had tagged along to keep an eye on her. He was perched on his staff beside her, chuckling as the clumsy eggs waddled underneath him.

“I’ll never get tired of seeing this,” he mused and glanced at Nat. He frowned when she remained silent and continued to sulk. He hopped down from his staff, careful not to crush the eggs underfoot, and squatted down next to her, propping his staff on his shoulders. “Look, I know that you aren’t keen on being babysat while everyone else is off looking for Pitch, but you should at least enjoy yourself while you’re here.” Nat merely huffed and crossed her arms.

“How am I supposed to do that? It’s so boring just sitting here,” she whined, sadly twirling her finger on the grass to make a few daisies spring from the ground. Jack watched, then smirked and rubbed his chin as a thought formed in his mind.

“So… You can make any plant, right?” he asked innocently. Nat nodded in reply, raising her eyebrows as she tried to figure out just what Jack was getting at. “Including the ones Bunny uses to dye his eggs?” The girl nodded again, then frowned when she realized Jack’s end goal.

“You want me to use my powers to help him?” she asked, and Jack nodded ecstatically and hopped to his feet.

“Exactly! I’m sure he’ll enjoy having the help, and it gives you something to do! Unless, that is, you don’t think you can do it,” he shrugged, turning his back to her and twirling his staff. Nat’s cheeks turned slightly pink and she jumped to her feet, pointing angrily at Jack’s back.

“I can do it! Just watch!” she snapped, muttering under her breath and stomping out into the middle of the procession of eggs. To Jack’s amazement, despite her obvious annoyance she managed to not crush a single egg with her angry steps; when she arrived at the middle, she took a deep breath to gather her focus, then crouched down and swept her hands softly across the grass. Where her touch fell, the familiar bluebell flowers sprouted and began dusting the eggs with puffs of paint dust. Besides the familiar blue, pink, and yellow, Nat managed to take it to another level, as the flowers even featured pastel greens and vibrant oranges.

“Oi, what’s goin’ on here?” Bunny asked impatiently as he hopped over to Jack, his ear twitching as he nervously watched the intrusion on his work. Jack smiled and put a hand on his furry friend’s shoulder.

“Relax! I’m doing you a favor,” he smirked and followed the marching eggs down to the glittery river, where they stumbled in. They came out the other side sparkling with glitter, and Jack smiled to Nat as she came up beside him with her arms primly crossed at her chest. “See? Isn’t this fun?” To his glee, the girl’s lips curled into the slightest of smiles, and she looked away as she swept a lock of her golden hair behind her ear.

“It’s a good way to relieve the boredom,” she admitted quietly, and turned as Bunny hopped up behind her with his foot tapping.

“You really did a number on my eggs, Nat- in a good way. Easter will be better than ever!” he grinned and proceeded across the river to continue herding his eggs. Jack smirked and glided across after him, leaving Nat on the banks of the sparkling, colorful river staring thoughtfully after him. The boy stopped to wave her over, and she crossed the river to find the eggs slipping into the curling vines of plants and coming out adorned with beautiful designs. She crouched down, admiring the plant life with big, curious eyes.

“I helped Bunny design this entire garden,” Nat murmured, watching with a small smile as another egg slid through the curled vine of the plant.

“Wait- you designed these plants?” Jack gasped, thoroughly impressed.

“She sure did. I used to have to paint these buggers m’self- that was a pain. But, Nat was nice enough to help me out, even though I didn’t know her that well,” Bunny nodded. Jack sat down on a rock, frowning slightly.

“Wait- how did you guys meet?” he asked. He had been under the impression that Nat was a hopeless recluse who had nothing to do with the Guardians at all.

“It was by chance, really,” Nat replied. “I happened to run into him while he was distributing his eggs. Our schedules fall close together, after all, and so I just made nice conversation and he told me about his problem- so I fixed it for him, because it was in my power to do so.” Bunny nodded in agreement, and then hopped after his eggs as they finished up their journey through the tunnels.

“That’s a nice story. I didn’t know that you knew any of the Guardians,” Jack told Nat after a moment, hopping off of his rock and poking an egg with his staff. It fell over and he snickered in amusement; with a small sigh, Nat leaned down and gently lifted the egg back on its feet, watching as it hurriedly ran after its friends.

“Like I said, it was mere chance. I really don’t want anything to do with anyone else. I do my job, and that’s all,” she replied matter-of-factly. When she straightened up, she was surprised to find Jack staring at her with a miserably sad expression.

“Doesn’t that get lonely?” he murmured. Nat gazed at him for a long while, the words caught in her throat as she struggled with the question. After a while, she looked away.

“… No. I’m not lonely. I have the Earth,” she murmured vaguely and followed Bunny through the dark tunnel. Jack stared after her, wondering what she could have been hiding to warrant such an obvious and blatant lie.