This chapter brought to you by the letter P (for procrastination) and my tears because I am so tired my god. On that note I am so sorry for the delay - uni has been very demanding this semester. I've finished classes, which just leaves exams. So not sure when the next chapter will be out, but I'm aiming to get a Halloween one in if possible :)

Requested by kitty.0 like a million years ago (I'm so sorry)

Once again, shout-out to FrostedDragonHeart who helped me out with this chapter

Disclaimed

...

Keeping Balance

...

North had noticed very quickly that Jack had a rather... peculiar relationship with gravity. That is to say, for the most part, there wasn't one. It was as though no one had ever bothered to stop and tell the boy that gravity was a thing that existed. But, being a carefree winter spirit who rode the wind as easily as he breathed, that was probably for the best. As it was, though, North still found himself amazed every now and again by Jack's ability to maintain his balance on literally anything.

Such as right now, as he watched Jack standing tiptoe on one foot on a very precariously stacked pile of odds and ends.

North stopped in the doorway to gawk. The very top of the stack (besides Jack himself) was an upturned bucket, which was resting on the end of a broom, resting against a chair, which itself was placed on a table half-mounted on a couch pulled out from the wall. In all, it made North very nervous just looking at it, but Jack didn't seem to have a care in the world for the concept of physics. At the very least, the pile should be wobbling – or Jack should be wobbling – but, no, it was perfectly stable. And Jack didn't seem to realise that he was one lean in the wrong direction away from a potential broken bone.

But what was more shocking was that the scene existed at all. He was very obviously reaching for something (the rafter directly above him, if North were to hazard a guess), but the boy could fly. What on Earth was he doing?

"Jack," North hedged, doing his best to keep his voice low lest he startle his young friend and cause him to fall.

Jack turned his head in North's direction just long enough to say, "Hi, North," before his attention was once more consumed by... whatever it was he was doing.

"Jack," North tried again, "what are you doing?"

"I'm trying," Jack grunted, straining his arm up as far as it would go, "to reach the rafter."

Right. North had figured as much. But that didn't really explain anything. "Why?"

"Because the elves decided to play treasure hunting with me – without bothering to inform me, might I add – and thought my staff would make a good treasure. They didn't hide it very well but they sure did their best to make it hard to reach." Jack heaved a sigh, letting his arm drop. North thought he heard him mutter something akin to 'damn elves are gonna regret this' but decided he didn't really want to know.

Instead, he turned his gaze up to the rafter and, as Jack had said, it was quite obvious that the staff was up there. In all honesty, North wasn't sure how he'd managed to miss the hooked end sticking out over the side.

"Hey, pass me that lamp," Jack drew his attention.

North turned to the lamp in question. Knowing exactly what Jack was thinking, and a little bewildered, he went to do as he was bid. No doubt nothing would stop Jack until he got what he wanted, and North would prefer to be there just in case something went wrong.

...

...

There's something really wrong with this kid, Bunny decided. Sure, he knew of people with freakish balance, and kids were naturally pretty fearless, but this was just ridiculous. That branch should not have been able to hold Jack's weight – light enough to be carried by the wind or not – let alone be wide enough for anything bigger than a bird to sit on.

Jack, apparently noticing his discomfort, smirked down at him from his perch on the scrawniest branch of the scrawniest tree in the whole damn Warren.

Bunny glared up at him.

Jack started bouncing the branch.

Bunny glared harder. He could just see it. Any second now that branch was going to give and Jack would fall. And Bunny would laugh because the idiot would have brought it on himself.

Jack, still grinning, rested the butt of his staff on the branch and jumped up to crouch on top of it. Bunny felt something in him snap.

"Would ya get out of the bloody tree?!"

Jack had the audacity to laugh. "What's the matter, Cottontail? You look a little nervous!" he called back down. "But I guess that's nothing new, right?"

"Nervous? Ha! I just don't want ya breaking my tree!"

"Relax, it's fine!" To prove his point, Jack bounced the branch a little more.

Reaching the end of his admittedly short patience, Bunny reached into his bandolier, pulled out an egg bomb, and hefted it at him. The look of shock on the brat's face was completely worth inadvertently dyeing the top of the tree purple.

...

...

While not overly common, it wasn't unusual for Sandy to run into Jack on his trips around the world. Well, more accurately, it wasn't unusual for Jack to run his hand through some dreamsand, attract Sandy's attention, and cause him to drift down for a quick hello. And, usually, he would find Jack standing somewhere that defied both physics and logic.

Honestly, how the boy managed to not only maintain his balance, but run along a ledge wrapped around a skyscraper less than an inch wide was well beyond what Sandy could fathom. But, really, he shouldn't have expected any differently. This was hardly the most gravity-defying stunt Jack had ever pulled.

So Sandy kept the surprise from his face and grinned brightly at his much younger friend while Jack nattered happily on about the kids he'd played with that day, and the ones who'd been able to see him. After a few minutes, though, he knew he needed to keep moving – there were a lot of kids in the world who needed some good dreams. Sandy held a finger up to catch Jack's attention, and then pointed in the direction he intended on going.

Jack was barely fazed at all, well used to this sort of thing by now. As Sandy started drifting away, Jack leapt from his tiny platform to a powerline, running along it as easily as he had the ledge. He would follow Sandy as far as the edge of town before the two would go their separate ways; they both had work to do, after all.

"So, Sandy," Jack grinned, jumping off the powerline to drift lazily alongside the Sandman, "tell me about your day... or, err, night, I suppose. Any noteworthy dreams?"

Sandy chuckled silently to himself and proceeded to regale Jack with a very peculiar dream a girl over in Singapore had had about a donkey in high heels acting as a judge on a cooking show.

...

...

Ever since Pitch's attack and Jack's ascension to Guardianship, Tooth had taken it upon herself to be out in the field more. There were, of course, times when there was just too much to do and it was easier to remain at the palace to act as a control tower, but she didn't mind all too much; especially on the days Jack came to visit. The girls adored him, and he never grew impatient with them, always doting. Tooth adored him, too, but she at least maintained her composure now when he smiled. ...Most of the time.

"Hey, Tooth!" Jack grinned at her, coming to land on the floor of the platform Tooth was directing her fairies from. He was so covered in fairies his clothes might as well have been made from them, and his teeth practically glistened in the soft light of the Tooth Palace. Tooth resisted the urge to fly over and get a better look.

"Hello, Jack!" she beamed at him instead. She spared a second to hand out assignments to a group of returning fairies before turning back to him. She opened her mouth to ask how his day had been but paused when she spotted him walking around the circumference of the platform on the low, and very thin, railing, staff slung over his shoulders without a care in the world. Even with a swarm of fairies clinging to him and fluttering about he didn't even wobble on his route. She'd seen him perform more amazing acts of balance, of course, but nonetheless she was never not impressed.

"Alright, girls," she stifled a laugh. "Time to get back to work."

The fairies twittered sadly but didn't protest, lifting from Jack's form like a swarm of bees. Even then, with the load lightened, Jack didn't falter. But he did stop to reassure them that he would hang around until they were next on break. Baby Tooth smugly perched herself on his shoulder, now on her own break after having just come back from Norway.

Tooth smiled to herself at the sight and, after telling Jack to make himself at home, returned her attention to tooth collecting.

...

...

North, Bunny, Sandy, and Tooth sat around the fireplace in the Globe Room, each with a beverage in hand and a plate of cookies on a table between them to share. For once, it wasn't a meeting that had them gathered, merely a chance to take a break from work and to enjoy each other's company. They had been caught up in a story Sandy had been telling them when their attention had been drawn to the window as Jack (finally) arrived.

Their youngest Guardian easily drifted down into the room, spring-boarding off several railings and ledges before landing silently on the back of the chair left vacant for him, where he crouched, grinning at them. It was a testament to how used to his freakish neglecting of physics they'd gotten that none of them so much as batted an eye at the display.

"Sorry I'm late," he said by way of greeting, "blizzard in Moscow was getting a little out of hand." Reaching out with his staff, he lightly tapped one of the cookies on the plate, freezing it to the tip. He managed to get it halfway back to him before Tooth broke it off and glared at him.

"Do you know how much sugar is in these things?" she scolded, waving the cookie at him as she did so.

Jack had the decency to look sheepish. Satisfied, Tooth turned back to her cup of tea, and Jack subtly accepted the replacement cookie sneakily pressed into his hand by North on his other side. Jack shoved the whole thing in his mouth before Tooth could notice and masked his chewing by taking a gulp of the iced chocolate premade for him.

Tooth, as if sensing the deception, shot her head around to stare at them suspiciously but Jack and North held up their hands in defence, the picture of innocence. It was only when she'd turned back to Sandy to listen to (read?) the rest of the story that they dropped the display, North winking conspiratorially at Jack over his eggnog and Jack taking another sip of his own drink to stifle the bubbling laughter in his throat.

Guest Review Responses:

TUT: Hahaha thank you! I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far XD