Chapter 1: Before the Storm

Jack Frost didn't do romance.

Oh, he knew he was good looking. And smart. And strong. And fun. Honestly, he was practically an angel.

Alright, that might've been a bit of an exaggeration, but still, he knew he wasn't half-bad. The thing was, after 300 years of doing the whole lone-wolf thing he really didn't know what to do about Tooth.

The great clock struck 12, and Big Ben tolled the hour. He stretched from his perch, working the kinks from his bones. It was a nice night. Manny was out in full, the air was crisp and Christmas was just around the corner. It'd be a nice flight. So long merry old England, hello Tooth Palace.

"Alright wind, carry me there!" he shouted with a smile, spreading his arms and jumping out into empty space.

With a whoosh the wind rose to greet him, and sent him rocketing away down the brightly lit streets of London. It wasn't long before the British Isles was just a golden speck amidst the ocean.

Tooth and Jack had gradually grown closer after the Bogeyman ordeal. It was one of those things where everybody had seen a relationship developing but him and Tooth. Meh, he thought. It doesn't really matter. We're here now.

He scratched his head. "Maybe I should bring flowers or something." Nah, they'd only wilt around him. Ah well, he'd wing it. What could go wrong?

"Famous last words", he laughed.

...

It didn't take long to get to Tooth's place, but is still would've been much shorter if he had snagged one of the Big Man's snow globes. He wouldn't have missed one or six. Ah whatever, he'd make due.

The palace was in much better repair with all of the teeth back in the proper places. The fairies fluttered about, busy as always. They were fun to fly with when they weren't working, which was rare, but usually they couldn't be bothered with anything that wasn't tooth related when they were on the job. That wasn't really the case when they saw him though. Whenever he'd show up they'd momentarily stop whatever they were doing and twirl about him, chitter their hellos, then hurriedly fly off again. That was fine, but man did their feathers tickle.

"Alright, alright alright! Easy, easy g-aht! Get out of there! Ha ha!" He shook a couple of the more daring ones out of his hoodie and they quickly darted away, giggling.

"Okay, girls stop for a second. I'm looking for the boss lady. She around?"

A hole opened up in the cloud and a few of them beckoned to follow. Gently extracting himself from the flurry of wings, Jack called a goodbye and dashed away, following his guides. He looked around at the passing fairies. "So where's Baby Tooth?"

The fairies looked back at him conspiratorially, but they didn't say a word. They brought him to the central hub before darting off in different directions. Confused, he landed on the ceramic tiles and looked around. There were a bunch of the helper fairies, but no Tooth Fairy. "Hey! Tooth!" he called out. A few looks from the minies but nothing else. He leaned against his staff. "Where is she?" An unbroken stream of squeaks caught his ear. He turned, and in the middle of a swirl of fairies he saw one directing the others in place of Tooth.

"Baby Tooth!"

The little fairy jumped and turned around in surprise. When she saw whom it was she jumped again, this time in happiness, and flew straight to his face to envelope his cheek in a hug. He felt something metallic brush his skin when she did. Curious, he smiled and cupped her in his palm, much like old times. He brought her up to his face.

"Its great to see you to li-", he stopped spying the metal object on her head. "Well well, what's this little miss?"

She puffed out her chest and held her head high, wearing the golden circlet with pride. Baby Tooth started to flit about the air with excitement, trying to explain in her high-pitched language, but Jack held up a hand.

"Woah woah easy, you know I can't understand you guys yet. But lemme guess, Tooth is out in the field again huh?"

Baby Tooth nodded quickly and twirled around, showing off her circlet with gusto.

"Aaaand she put Pearl in charge didn't she? Relax, I'm only joking!" he laughed at her indignant huff. "Oh c'mon," he said as she continued to pout, "hey, you look great."

After a few seconds her cloudy face reversed back to her cheerful one. Jack chuckled. "Alright, so when is the head hancho gonna be back?"

"Oh I don't know, how about right now?"

He was tackled from the side in a fearsome bear hug, one that knocked the breath out of him. "Jack!" Toothiana said, lifting him up and spinning him around in her tight embrace. "You came!"

"Ergmfenme…"

"What?"

"You're crushing my lungs."

"Oh!" she exclaimed, releasing him at once. "Sorry!"

"Oof…erg…yeah" he coughed, "it's ok, I love to get the air squeezed from my body every now and again. Healthy. Real refreshing." He pounded his chest to get things working right again.

"Strong talk from a man who doesn't even have flowers for his beautiful date."

Jack rolled his eyes. Figures.

"Yeah but you were late, so I'd think we were even."

"Mm. You'd think wrong."

They stared at each other with raised eyebrows for a good five seconds before erupting into laughter. After the chuckling stopped they hugged again, a bit longer and with much less rib crushing this time. Even Baby Tooth who had been watching from a distance decided to join in.

Eventually they left one another's embrace. As soon as they did, Baby Tooth started up with the real boss in what sounded to be an important conversation. The number of fairies who had been waiting for their assignments (which was growing by the second) hovered close by, impatient but somewhat understanding.

"Yes…Oh really?" Tooth held up a finger to Jack, asking for a moment. "That many? Well…Yes, I understand. Hmm…Ok, divert the Australian branch towards China and have them carry double duty. They're tough girls, I'm sure they can handle it. And don't worry, you've been doing great!"

Baby Tooth fluttered, encouraged, and darted back to her post. Tooth watched her go. She sighed. "A problem, but nothing new. They have been doing so much better. Some of them do still worry about going out at night, but I think they're getting over it. October was really tricky, what with it being Pitch's time of the year."

Jack nodded. "Yeah I'll bet, I'd be scared to if I had to look at Pitch's face again."

She pushed him. "I'm serious Jack."

"So am I." He smiled.

She cocked her head at him in the way a mom will when humoring her kid.

"What am I going to do with you?"

He shrugged. "You could always pull out my teeth."

A mischievous smile crossed her face before she turned. "Let's get going, sunrise is in a few hours."

Jack's confident smile turned down in disbelief. "Wait, Tooth, you wouldn't do that would-HEY! TOOTH!"

Women.