Okay, doing this really quickly cause I have to go to uni.

Happy birthday to HeavensLuminousArc who requested this as a birthday present for her friend Mari - happy birthday to you, as well ^w^ I hope it's okay and that you enjoy it!

...

Friends with Puffins

...

Jack stared at the strange black and white bird before him. The strange black and white bird stared back. For a long moment, neither of them moved.

"You're not a penguin," he eventually said, stating the obvious. The bird, while of similar colouring, was nothing like his avian family down south. This bird was a fraction of the size, with short wings and a stocky body.

Jack took a moment to glance around, but there were no other birds in sight. "What are you doing here?" he asked, crouching down on his haunches.

The bird, still watching him, let out a long, moan-like noise not dissimilar to a muffled chainsaw or a cow. A creepy cow.

Now, normally, seeing a bird alone wasn't a big deal – it happened. But seeing a bird alone in a country known for its snowy winters at the beginning of said season was. Jack didn't know much about birds but he'd seen (and caused) enough migrations to know this wasn't normal behaviour.

The bird, still scrutinising him, began to make its leisurely way over to him on orange webbed feet, revealing one of its wings held at a funny angle. That answered that question, then.

"You can't fly?" he frowned. "Did the other birds leave you behind? Is that why you're still here?"

The bird made its weird noise again, but he had a feeling it had understood his questions about as much as he'd understood the response.

Jack smiled sadly at the little thing, knowing if it couldn't fly away it would die – either from lack of food or from the cold temperature. As a winter spirit, he wasn't very good at helping people (or in this case birds) from warming up, but there was no way he was just going to leave the poor thing to die. Of course he knew all about that 'don't mess with the course of nature' spiel that people liked to throw around, but in a sense he was nature, or at least a part of it. So, mind made up, Jack gently placed his staff down beside him and reached out for the bird.

"Here, let me have a look at your wing."

The bird eyed him warily but didn't move away, letting Jack stroke its head and ruffling its feathers at his cold touch. Jack felt a smirk tug at his lips.

"If you don't like that, you're not going to want to stick around here for too much longer. For a place called Greenland, it's not really known for being very green."

Cautiously, he moved his hand down the little bird's back until he reached the problem wing. He'd barely touched it before it was protesting in what was probably pain.

"Sorry, sorry!" he quickly pulled away. "Looks like it might be broken," he sighed.

Jack wasn't unfamiliar with broken bones – having experienced it more than once in his life – but he had a feeling his usual treatment of an ice cast and lying in the snow wasn't going to work for the bird. It didn't even like his cold touch let alone a hunk of ice strapped to its wing.

…But there were other ways to fix a broken bone.

Looking around, Jack quickly spotted a couple of sticks that would work well as a splint and snatched them up before rummaging around in his hoodie pocket for something he could use to tie them together. Locating a long piece of string with a smile of success, he gently tried to coax the bird into stretching out its wing even just a little bit.

"Come on, that's it," Jack said soothingly, grabbing one of the sticks and lining it up against the bone of the wing. The bird tried to tug away but his persistence eventually won out over the creature's fear. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked cheerily when he'd finished tying the last of the knots securing the sticks in place.

The bird looked sullen.

"Oh don't be like that," Jack rolled his eyes. "Come on, we should go find Tooth – if anyone would know what to do with a broken wing it'd be her." Pulling off his hoodie, he wrapped it around the bird like a make-shift blanket to help protect against jostling and wind chill before grabbing his staff and, bird cradled to his chest, took off for Punjam Hy Loo.

...

...

The Tooth Palace was a mess of tiny fairies fluttering about, going out to collect teeth and bringing them back to put into the golden canisters of the children they belonged to. But, chaos while it may have been, it was an organised chaos; each and every fairy knowing her job and doing it well.

It took only a matter of seconds for Jack to note the absence of the fairy queen. She must have been out on collection, something she'd been doing more of recently. He was happy for her but it certainly put a wrench in his plans.

An excited chirping had Jack turn to see a cluster of fairies come to greet him, Baby Tooth at its head.

"Hey, little Baby Teeth," he smiled, chuckling when they swooned. "I take it Tooth's out?"

Baby Tooth nodded, saying something beyond Jack's understanding.

"Any idea when she'll be back?"

The fairies started talking over each other, trying to answer his question but it went straight over his head. Three of them broke away from the group and started flitting around his hoodie, which was bundled up and carried carefully by one arm. They were probably wondering why he wasn't wearing it.

"Oh, well my little friend here is in need of some assistance and I figured Tooth would be the best person to ask," Jack explained, shifting the hood of his jumper to reveal the head of the bird.

The fairies twittered in interest, staring at the bird that stared right back. If Jack didn't know any better he'd have thought it was glaring at them.

Baby Tooth pointed northwards, trying to tell him something. Jack followed the direction she'd indicated with his eyes, and quickly understood.

"She's at the Workshop?"

Baby Tooth nodded in affirmation.

"Is everything okay?"

Another nod followed by a series of squeaks that Jack couldn't decipher.

"Okay, well, I think we'll just head on there," Jack shrugged, recovering his passenger with the hood and shifting the whole package into a more comfortable position. "Keep up the good work, ladies!" he called as he shot off towards the Pole.

...

...

When Jack flew into the Globe Room under ten minutes later, he had been expecting to see Tooth and North. He had not been expecting Bunny and Sandy to be there as well, and all of them surrounded by masses of paper.

"Did I miss something?" he found himself asking, watching the scene in confusion. The next meeting wasn't for a good few weeks, right?

"Ah, Jack! You are just in time!" North greeted heartily, waving him over. "We were about to call for you!"

"In time for what?" He quickly dodged out of the way before the large man could pull him into one of his bone-crushing hugs. He glanced over at the others, trying to figure out how they had known to be there without need for the Aurora Borealis.

"It's almost Christmas," Tooth smiled as she fluttered over, "so we decided to give North a hand with checking the lists and making sure everything is going well."

"Do not worry if you are busy," North reassured. "But if you have time, the help would be appreciated, and then we can share dinner and watch movie!"

"As long as it's not one of those bloody 'holiday' movies," Bunny rolled his eyes.

"Oh, uh, sure," Jack replied, momentarily taken by surprise. "Can I borrow Tooth for a second first?"

"Of course, Jack," Tooth squeezed his shoulder. "What is it?"

"My little friend here injured a wing – I figured you'd know more about it than me," Jack told her, carefully unwrapping part of his hoodie so that the bird inside could be seen.

His disgruntled passenger gazed around at them all before setting its gaze on Tooth – who happened to be the closest – with a look not dissimilar to the one it had given the fairies.

"Is that a puffin?" Bunny asked, breaking the silence.

"Is that what you are?" Jack looked down at the bird with one brow raised. The puffin looked up at him and murrrrred.

"Where the heck did ya get a puffin?"

"I found it–"

The puffin cried out in protest.

"–sorry, her – in Greenland. I think her wing is broken."

"Oh no, the poor thing," Tooth gasped. "Here, let me see." The second the fairy got close, the little puffin started struggling to get at her, causing Jack to wince as sharp claws dug into his chest, even through the material of his hoodie.

"Whoa, hey," he cried, trying to soothe the frazzled bird. She only settled when Tooth moved back again. With a sigh, Jack placed her down on the table, still wrapped up. When he stepped back, the puffin wormed her way to freedom and stood on the wood of the table, eyeing them all.

Sandy was the first to approach, successfully managing to get close without much fuss, and examined the make-shift splint on the damaged wing. It wasn't a professional job, but it had kept the wing from being jostled and made worse. He turned to Jack and conveyed that it would still require proper treatment.

"I will have medic yetis take care of it," North reassured, placing a heavy hand on Jack's shoulder.

The puffin swiftly jumped off the table, stormed over, and attempted to climb up Jack's leg. Jack rolled his eyes and stooped to pick her up.

"Thanks North," he smiled at the older man. "You guys keep doing what you were doing – I'll go take her to the infirmary."

...

...

"How's the bird?" Bunny asked as Jack plonked down opposite him, once again wearing his hoodie.

"From what I understood, she'll recover. She's getting patched up at the moment," Jack replied, dragging one of the long pieces of parchment towards himself. "What are we doing, exactly?"

"Just goin' through the lists to make sure no one's been missed or is on the wrong list."

"And how am I supposed to know?"

Bunny shrugged without looking up.

"Helpful." Jack didn't know the kids by name – not all of them, at least. It wasn't like he could just swoop in for an introduction, after all. Nevertheless, he glanced down at the names scrawled down on the paper, frowning in concentration as if that would make it all clear. This went on for about thirty seconds before Jack, fed up, pushed the parchment away. "Isn't there something more useful I could be doing?"

"I ask myself that every time I see ya."

"Wow. Thanks."

Bunny's ears twitched and they both turned to watch as the puffin, one wing bandaged against her body, marched into the room with a constant stream of irritated muurring. With surprising agility, she jumped up onto the table via a chair, moved to stand in front of Bunny and 'murr'ed at him. Bunny stared her down with mild disinterest.

"Aw, I think she likes you," Jack grinned.

Bunny gave him a look that questioned his sanity. A look that earned him a fierce glare from the bird.

"Hey," Jack reached out and poked the puffin in the back. She instantly rounded on him. "I think Mister Grumpy Tail over there could use a hug."

"Don't you dare," Bunny growled.

"You're not scared of a little bird, are you, Cotton Tail?"

"Not on your life, mate."

Fortunately for Bunny, the puffin didn't seem to have understood what Jack was hinting at and continued to focus on the winter spirit. After a moment she moved over to him and jumped into his lap, enticing a small smile from Jack.

"Ya know ya can't keep her, right?" Bunny asked after a moment.

"Yeah, I know," Jack said, looking up at him as he absently stroked the puffin's feathers. "She doesn't like the cold, anyway. And I'm not sure if the penguins would approve," he added almost as an afterthought.

Bunny shook his head at his most recent penguin-related memory. It was not something he wanted a repeat of anytime soon. And this puffin seemed to like him about as much as the larger birds did. And, like with the penguins, Jack seemed completely oblivious. Either that or he was doing it on purpose. It could go either way.

Sandy drifted over, a glass of eggnog in one hand and a platter of cookies in the other, and told them that they were taking a snack break.

"Nothing sugary!" Jack heard Tooth call from across the room as he reached for one of the offered cookies.

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Jack whispered conspiratorially to Sandy, sneaking one of the chocolate chip ones. He broke a bit off for the puffin but wasn't surprised when she turned her head away. "More for me."

"I can hear you eating sugar!"

Jack shook his head fondly. "Hey, Sandy, quick question?"

Sandy nodded.

"Where do puffins usually go during winter?"

...

...

Jack landed gently on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. It had taken a while, but with Sandy's help he'd managed to find a flock of puffins wintering there. He didn't know if they were the same ones his puffin had been with, but in the end he figured it wasn't really all that important.

The winter here wasn't as cold as he would have preferred, but at least it wasn't hot and he was sure the puffins would enjoy it.

It had taken a good several weeks for the puffin's wing to heal and a few practice sessions for her to get used to flying again after being grounded for so long, but Jack was confident she'd be fine now. He gently set her down on the ground and gave her a gentle push in the direction of the other puffins chilling on the coast.

"Go on," he coaxed. "Go make some friends."

She seemed reluctant, much like a child on their first day of school, so Jack relented to walking her over; moving slowly so as not to startle the other birds. They watched him warily as he approached but didn't fly away. A win if you asked Jack.

The puffin was accepted fairly quickly by the group, and Jack wondered if they were her original flock after all. While she was distracted, he slowly back peddled to give them some space.

"I'll see you around," he called out to her, waving goodbye.

She called back in her own way, flapping her wings and ruffling her feathers.

Jack wasn't overly surprised the following year at the end of autumn to find a flock of puffins still in Greenland – one in particular very happy to see him.

Guest Review Responses:

Painapple: Haha or 'you can sleep when you're dead'. Just don't wear yourself out, kay?

Fandomcrazy: Thanks for understanding!