As it turned out, 'harder than they thought' was much, much harder than they'd ever imagined. As the months ticked by, they all had to question at one time or another if they were really doing the right thing...
It was usually that thought that made them work harder. If the way Jack was behaving was any hint, then this wasn't the first time someone had tried to get close and either used him or given up on him, and they weren't going to do that to him.
Not to mention, they were getting glimpses of the real Jack behind the mask he was trying so hard to keep in place, and they liked what they saw.
Trying to reconnect with each other was still a priority, and they wondered sometimes if Jack suspected something, with all the times he wandered in and found them together. They weren't doing anything friends wouldn't do...okay, well, really close friends who liked a lot of physical contact, but still.
Every so often they would catch Jack watching them, trying to pretend he wasn't, but he was still hesitant about accepting affection or contact. He would start to lean into a pat or a touch, only to freeze up and jerk away seconds later.
It was frustrating, even as they tried not to press for more. If Jack wasn't ready, then they needed to respect that.
As if in response to Bunny's little talk, Jack was upping the annoyance factor. If they'd thought the pranks were bad, they were almost nothing compared to his behavior now.
From hanging constantly in their space, to incessant chatter, to irritating little habits that they all knew Jack hadn't had before this, if Jack had been trying to irritate them into giving up on him before, he was doing a much better job of it now.
Only Sandy really had patience to spare, and even his was a little strained by the end of another month of Jack's deliberate irritations.
The other three were holding on to their tempers by threads at times, and only their weekly after meetings after Jack had left the proper meeting really helped as they talked things through, found the common thread in the irritations Jack was heaping upon them.
And more importantly, the threads in the things he didn't say, the moments he let his guard down and they saw the longing behind the irritations and annoying behavior, the Jack Frost they had gotten to see that weekend they'd all met him properly for the first time.
The problem with threads is, eventually, they snap. And sometimes, it's hard to tell just what the breaking point is going to be – or how harsh the backlash will be when it finally goes.
And the Guardians knew it, too. They didn't want to admit it, but they knew it, had had it happen before and paid the consequences for it then.
Sandy was dealing with it the best so far – but then again, he had a good reason to fly off when Jack really started getting annoying, since Jack still refused to interfere with the Guardians' duties. Make them more difficult, yes, confuse everyone with things like mixed-up coins very yes, but actually interfere, no.
It also helped that a good dash of dream sand to the face would put even a hyperactive spirit like Jack, who by his own admission only slept when he was exhausted, down for the count for awhile.
Things couldn't keep going this way, but none of them had a clue what to do to fix this anymore.
Bunny knew that, out of all of them, he had the shortest temper now that he had given in to emotions, and he was the worst of them when it came to understanding emotions and understanding the hints others gave in their body language and voices that most humans took for granted.
