The tricksters and spirits of love and marriage were reluctant to leave. They wanted to stay, to help the Guardians – all of them – work through these first few days.

Still, there was a line between 'helping' and 'meddling', between wanted and unwanted interference, and staying longer would be crossing that line into bad territory.

Each made a point to talk to each Guardian anyway before they left, offering everything from a line of communication if they needed advice or a willing ear to another modified shovel talk. Sometimes both, and sometimes the shovel talk wasn't exactly all that serious.

The Guardians, after all, wouldn't hurt Jack on purpose. On accident, though...they'd probably end up punishing themselves worse than the tricksters could, but that wouldn't stop them from taking advantage of a perfect opportunity to get away with pranking some of the most well known and powerful spirits around with impunity.

The first few days were tentative, as the seven spirits did the emotional equivalent of tiptoeing around each other.

As much as they wanted to stay by each other and try to fix this, they all had duties, and all too soon Tooth and Sandy had to leave. No matter what was happening to them personally, the children were still losing teeth that needed collecting, and they needed sweet dreams, and Tooth's fairies could only go without their mother so long, and Sandy could only leave the Dreamsand on its own so long.

Jack was almost relieved by it, and promised to go visit them both soon, after they'd gotten things back under control. He faltered a little when trying to explain, finally falling back on, "I want some one on one time. This is...getting a little overwhelming."


Katherine sought Jack out, Nightlight by her side, the day after Tooth and Sandy headed back to work. She really should get to work herself, she knew – more and more the stories of the world were coming to her, and somehow Katherine knew it was to be her job to write them all down, to spread their creative energy around the world to inspire others.

But even she couldn't write all day. And Nightlight had wanted to go talk to Jack, so...

Jack looked up as they approached, then back out the window. His hood was up, and he was curled up on the window seat, but he didn't tell them to leave, and he nodded when Katherine patted the window seat, silently asking permission to join him.

The trio sat quietly looking out the window at the drifts of snow. Several yeti were outside, having a snowball fight, and Katherine grinned to see Jack's influence at work.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jack suddenly asked.

Katherine paused, tilting her head to try and see under Jack's hood. He didn't move, still ostensibly staring out at the yeti.

"The others asked me not to," she said. "Well, more like begged me. They were trying to figure out how to break it to you. I gave them a deadline before Nightlight and I went ahead and told you."

"Why hold the party before breaking the news, then?" Jack demanded. "You had to know somebody would crack."

"I'm still not sure how it happened," Katherine said slowly, thinking over the time before the party. "The deadline was that evening. I love them, but sometimes I don't know what they're thinking."

She paused, looking out the window herself, before she said, "I believe everyone was told you weren't ready for marriage, just Guardianship, and not to bring it up."

A lot of spirits were surprised it was still a marriage, Nightlight supplied. Jack's not the only one who didn't know. Mostly younger spirits didn't know about it.

Jack's trailing fingers left frost spiraling on the window. "It does explain the spirits I overheard talking about what some of us would be like in bed," he said slowly. He grinned at Katherine's squeak of outrage, adding "They weren't being complimentary," knowing it would fuel the indignation. "Pretty nasty, really. I, ah, kinda accidentally set Pitch on them. What's his deal, anyway? I thought he hated us, then he sorta helps me."

Katherine didn't like changing the subject, but let Jack do it anyway, hoping it was just rambling and not actively avoiding talking about it. "I don't know. He used to be a lot more...evil, I'll say. Actively trying to harm children."

"Well, I wouldn't say Easter of 2012 was that great," Jack pointed out. "He shot Sandy in the back."

Katherine and Nightlight both winced. "He did do that," she admitted. "I just..." she looked out the window again, unsure of her own feelings on the matter. "Sandy and Bunny both know about how he used to be, long ago. And the fearlings that tainted him have nearly all died off, thanks to all of us. He'll never be the Golden General again, but...he's not the person he was during the wars, either."

Jack hummed softly. The three sat in companionable silence for a time, watching the yeti outside and listening to the hum of the Workshop inside.

"It hurt," Jack said, so softly only Katherine and Nightlight could hear him, and even then only just. "It hurt so much to find out all of you had been keeping this from me. I'm not going to lie anymore, so I have to admit it." His hand inched over and brushed against Nightlight's, resting together on the window seat. "Because I trusted all of you. Because, maybe it's silly of me, but I want this. I want it so much."

Jack looked at them through his bangs, letting them see past the mask of devil-may-care that he wore around other spirits down to the vulnerable center.

Nightlight slipped his hand over, so he could hold Jack's, relieved when Jack squeezed back. Katherine stood and Nightlight read her intentions quickly, hundreds of years alone together making it simple, and he tugged Jack away from the wall he'd been leaning against.

Jack came along, confused and protesting, until Katherine sat where he'd been, sandwiching him between them. Katherine took Jack's hand in both of hers, gently untangling it from his staff, which slid to the crook of his elbow.

On his other side, Nightlight interlaced their fingers. "We do, too," Katherine said, leaning cautiously against Jack's side and feeling the small thrill as he leaned back. "We want it so much."


Jack hovered over the Tooth Palace, considering. He probably should have gone to see Bunny first. Tooth was going to be so busy, after taking a few days off, for the...the kidnapping and all.

He still hadn't really dealt with that properly. If he could have, Jack would have been perfectly happy to forget the whole thing, but if Katherine and her books were to be believed, that would make things worse in the long run.

Ugh. Trying to be a responsible adult sucked. No wonder he'd put it off as long as possible.

And now he had to go have a responsible, adult conversation with Tooth about their feelings.

If it all worked out it was going to be so worth it, but ugh, being responsible was the worst.

Jack flitted through the air down to Tooth's palace, greeting the Baby Teeth by name and cooing over them as they hurried to fetch and store the teeth.

He perched on one of the graceful beams of Tooth's command central, noting as he did that, while it was pretty, it reminded him a little of a cage. Maybe it was how Tooth had admitted she hadn't left it for around four hundred years...maybe Tooth would be interested in a little redecorating.

The musing was interrupted by watching Tooth herself. She spun and glittered inside the gold, a living jewel as she gushed and enthused over a first lost tooth, a tooth holding particularly sweet memories, or worried over a house that had multiple teeth lost.

Then she caught sight of Jack, and started.

She called out his name happily, pausing only long enough to be sure the girls had smoothly taken over before fluttering over to him.

"Hey," Jack said softly. "Think the girls can handle things for a little while?"

"A little while," Tooth agreed. "I don't want to leave them for long, they did wonderfully over the few days but I don't want to ask too much of them."

Indignant chirps met that statement, and Jack covered up his chuckling as the Baby Teeth insisted they could handle it.

They hustled their mother off as she bit back her own giggles, at least until she and Jack were alone in one of the inner rooms of the Tooth Palace.

Then she went silent and nervous, fixing tea and a small plate of fruit as they both sat in piles of large cushions. Jack didn't protest this time, letting Tooth fuss. It gave him an excuse to try and calm his own nerves.

"I'm not mad," Jack said suddenly, the words almost bursting free. "I mean, I'm upset yeah but I got a chance to think it over so I'm not mad anymore really. I'm just..." he ran a hand through his hair, huffing out a puff of frost. "I had this whole speech I rehearsed the whole way here and I forgot it," he said ruefully.

"I wasn't sure you would ever forgive us," Tooth said, hands smoothing out the cloth over the low table they were seated at. "The time was never right to tell you – first you seemed to be so sure we were going to get rid of you, telling you felt cruel, and then you were trying to get rid of us, and...it was just never right. It seemed right at first to fix our own marriage before we told you, but then time kept passing and..." she gestured vaguely, encompassing the few years since they'd all met and Jack had joined them.

"Was it really that bad?" Jack asked.

Tooth looked down into her chai. "I hadn't left my palace in over four hundred years," she reminded Jack. "I was so focused on the teeth...it ...we needed to work on it. And if you hadn't come when you had, I don't think we would have realized it," she added, looking up at Jack frankly. "You aren't supposed to fix it. We are. But you made us realize it needed fixed, Jack."

"I figured you just wanted me for my teeth," Jack said, trying to inject some laughter into the conversation.

It worked, as Tooth giggled. "They don't hurt," she said. "Jack..." she reached out, not quite touching Jack, her hand hovering over his like a bird frightened to land, "you do know you aren't supposed to fix this, right? The marriage or our mistakes."

"Well, it'd be pretty hard to fix it without my cooperation," he pointed out with a wink, turning over his hand to brush against her gently. "Think you're fixing it? And that you can keep from doing that again?"

Tooth fussed with her teacup again, before looking up at Jack, their free hands interlaced over the table. "Honestly? I think we're hoping having you and Katherine and Nightlight around will help. The three of you don't get...sucked into your work like we do. Katherine can get deep into a story, but she takes breaks. I can't see the three of you letting us, even if we start to slip."

She looked back towards the command center. "I should probably get back to work soon, it's not right to ask the fairies to do all my work for me."

"That needs a makeover," Jack said, standing with Tooth. "Way too much like a cage."

Tooth paused, looking it over. "I...suppose it does. I don't..."

"Maybe Bunny can get some flowers growing over it," Jack offered, to ease her distress. "Won't be a cage then."

Tooth smiled, hesitating before floating in and pressing a kiss to Jack's cheek, her heart fluttering as he smiled and kissed hers in return. "Let's go flying again soon, kay?" he said.

Tooth giggled. "Just so you know...the Sister of Flight did courtship flights," she warned him. "Showing off speed and all their best moves. Don't worry, I didn't count any of our previous flights as one, since you didn't know. But I did wish you did."

"Well," Jack said after a second to process that. "I guess we'll have to have a flight, then."

He winked at the flustered and giggly Tooth and took off.


Jack floated on the wind, not heading in any particular direction just yet, simply thinking.

He wasn't really feeling the effects of being held by the Snow Queen yet...that was coming, though, he was pretty sure of it. He wasn't sure exactly how long she'd held him, but while he may have come out physically unscathed, there was no way he'd come out mentally fine.

But, as far as he knew, there wasn't a spirit of therapy out there, so he was going to have to find another way to deal with it, or find out if there was a spirit out there he could trust that had gotten bored enough to sit through the college courses on therapy.

Not very likely, to be honest.

He was bumming himself out, and after he'd had such a great glow going from visiting with Tooth and all the hopeful feelings that conversation had brought on. With that thought, Jack spun down towards the ground. Bunny had said, once, that the Warren would always open for him...it was time to find out if that was still true.

Three taps of his staff to the ground, solid and deliberate, less a tap and more a solid hit so the spell would know he wasn't just fiddling with the staff but wanted in, and after a tense few seconds a hole opened up in the ground in front of Jack.

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Of course Bunny hadn't had a reason to close the Warren to him, but...it was going to be a long time before Jack could expect the spell to work without that moment of fear.

Silly maybe, but it was what it was. Jack jumped into the tunnel before he could think more on it, a skiff of ice letting him skate through the tunnels to the Warren and melting behind him.

He hit the Warren and took to the air with a somersault, hovering near the ceiling.

Bunny could be anywhere in here, really, and there was a lot of Warren, more than they'd first seen that Easter they'd all been down here to try and defeat Pitch.

Jack wasn't really sure why he wanted to talk to Bunny right now rather than think over his conversation with Tooth more. He just...wanted to be near the other Guardian for some reason.

He and Bunny may have argued a lot, but there was still something solid and comforting about the Guardian of Hope.

The only question...well, not the only question, but the first one...was where to find him.

"Here, Bunny, Bunny, Bunny," Jack murmured, grinning, before taking off.

Time for an Easter Bunny hunt.