„Hey, Baby Tooth, you okay?"
Jack floated down to the little fairy who had landed on a pile of pony plush toys and noticed that her tiny cheeks had a flushed tint to them.
Maybe they had overdone it.
It was no secret that Baby Tooth was Jack's favourite of Toothiana's fairies and the hummingbird-hybrid had grown very attached to him during the battle against Pitch. So the Guardian of Memories had decided to give her one day off each month and allowed her to spend that day completely with the winter spirit. Who quickly started to use this opportunity to pull his small friend to the mischievous side and show her his version of fun.
What had started with Baby Tooth merely watching the pranks he pulled on people ( and being highly entertained by it ) soon led to them both working together and sometimes she even suggested who their next victim might be.
Today they had the glorious idea to tie dozends of teeny pink bows, which were originally created for some Barbie-like dolls, to Phil's fur while he was taking a nap. Baby Tooth was of great help when it came to applying them since she could perform this task much better with her tiny hands. Jack struggled a bit more which almost resulted in Phil waking up when he had pulled too strong on the yeti's fur. Both winter spirit and tooth fairy hadn't moved an inch until they were sure the hairy creature was still in the land of dreams.
However, sooner or later he had to wake up and unfortunately it was before the two troublemakers could flee out of sight. They froze in their tracks for a moment, stared at him in shock and then, with a casual grin and wave of their hands, dashed down the hallway.
Phil just looked mildly confused and had a suspicious feeling that the frost boy and his pet fairy were up to no good. If another yeti hadn't passed by and landed on the floor in a laughing fit while pointing at his co-worker, he probably wouldn't have noticed that there was anything different about his appearance. Well, unless he had taken a look at his shoulders and chest, which were graced with at least 20 little bows. Pink bows. He hated pink.
At least he couldn't see the other dozend bows in his beard yet, but he assumed the worst.
The faint mischievous laugh in the distance set him off and the huge creature ran in the direction his assaulters had fled to. It didn't take long to find them, he just had to follow the giggles and whoops of joy.
"Don't celebrate your victory too soon." he thought.
On the fourth floor of the workshop, where the other yetis were painting toy planes, doll houses and robots, he caught them completely off guard. Jack was sitting on the banister and gave a high-five to Baby Tooth who was floating in front of him.
Only an angry huff, when he was coming nearer, alerted them of his presence.
"We gotta go!" the white-haired boy shouted and jumped down, the wind catching him right away, with Baby Tooth close on his heels.
Phil groaned in frustration but wasn't willing to accept his defeat.
He chased after them again and the pursuit lasted for well over two hours. Two hours of hiding, running, laughing, cursing, knocked over toys and more aggravated yetis.
Without a doubt it would have continued like this if North hadn't interjected and asked what the ruckus was about. A look at the with pink bows covered Phil already answered all questions he had and the Guardian of Wonder totally failed at not breaking out in laughter himself. As he regained his composure he walked towards his fellow helper and patted his shoulder.
"Looking good, Phil, now get back to work."
The yeti groaned in dissapproval and grumpily obeyed his boss's order. He wouldn't argue with Santa Clause.
"Phew, seems like we're off the hook." Jack muttered as he watched the scene while hiding behind a wooden pole.
After not getting a reply he scanned his surroundings for his feathery friend.
"Baby Tooth?"
Suddenly he saw her slowly fluttering towards some plush toys and slumping down on the soft fabric. With worry the teen hurried towards her and realized how exhausted she looked. Her cheeks were flushed and she gasped for air as her tiny body rested on the surface of a pale-blue pony with a rainbow coloured mane.
"You okay? Guess that was a little too much action for today, huh?" Jack asked, guilt apparent in his voice.
The little hummingbird nodded weakly and gave him a reassuring smile. She didn't want him to feel guilty because of her, she did have fun and enjoyed every minute of it, no matter how exhausting the chase from Phil had been.
Before she could prevent it she had fallen asleep. Jack watched her for a moment to make sure she really was alright and suddenly felt that he was quite worn out and tired as well.
Without further hesitation he leaned against the pile of pleasantly soft stuffed toys, closed his eyes and soon was taking a nap well.
Baby Tooth was annoyed. She was exhausted and yet she kept waking up and tried to get into a more comfortable position. In vain. An almost inaudible sigh of frustration left her tiny mouth before she glanced at the winter spirit sleeping next to her. More exactly, at his alluringly fluffy looking hair. The little fairy groggily climbed down from the pony plush and onto her friend's head instead, where she gently hugged a white lock as replacement for a pillow. It didn't take long until she was sleeping soundly in her new improved 'nest'.
How much time had passed, he didn't know. But when Jack awoke he felt charged with new energy. With one last loud yawn he stretched his limbs and looked around to see if Baby Tooth was still sleeping. Much to his surprise he didn't find her on the pile of pony plushies next to him and neither anywhere else as he scanned his surroundings.
"Baby Tooth?" he asked with slowly arising worry.
He felt responsible for the little fairy and if she didn't return to the Tooth Palace soon he was sure that Tooth herself would show up to pick her up. She already had to do that once and wasn't too happy about it.
Sighing in frustration, the winter spirit got up, grabbed his staff and wandered through the workshop. Once more he looked around to make sure Baby Tooth really wasn't hiding anywhere.
"If you're here, please come out, this is not funny. Tooth will kill me." he muttered.
No reply. He really was in trouble. The fact that the Tooth Fairy gave one of her best and most loyal workers a day off was reason enough to not abuse her kindness. Who knew, maybe she would take back that offer if Jack and the little fairy prooved to be not trustworthy. And he enjoyed their monthly day of mischief too much for letting that happen.
A glance at the big wooden hall clock he passed slowly set his panic mode off. Baby Tooth was supposed to be back at Toothiana's place in Asia in less than 20 minutes. She could still make it in time. If he managed to find her. Or maybe she was already on her way back home? No, she never left without saying goodbye.
Jack passed by two yetis and asked them if they had seen the small hummingbird-hybrid. They just glanced at him dumbfounded and then snickered incomprehensible, let's call it 'words', at each other. The frost boy just rolled his eyes at their strange behaviour, not having a clue what this was about. He had bigger issues to deal with right now.
Several more yetis and elves mirrored this reaction whenever he asked them about Baby Tooth's whereabouts. This and the quickly approaching deadline were enough to drive even the Guardian of Fun to the edge.
"Okay, that's enough, does anyone here have a remotely useful advice of where Baby Tooth could be?!" he growled in frustration.
All he got was more snickering and amused looks. Oh yeah, they obviously really liked seeing him in trouble. Traitors.
When he turned around to stomp away in anger he bumped into a wall of fur.
"Uh, hey Phil." Jack greeted him awkwardly.
The yeti had successful removed all the pink bows from his pelt…except one on his neck, but Jack assumed it was the wrong moment to point that out.
"We're cool, aren't we?" he grinned at him a little anxiously.
Once more he didn't get the reaction he wanted when Phil just glared at him with an expression that said "I'd like to kill you, but North would banish me for it."
"I take that as a 'no'…but uhm, you haven't seen Baby Tooth anywhere? Possibly?"
The hairy creature looked at him the same way the others had done and Jack really had to hold himself back from groaning in annoyance. Suddenly realization dawned on the yeti's features and he shot the white-haired boy an evil grin.
Jack however totally misinterpreted this and immediately got upset about what his stressed mind had come up with.
"Wait…do you have anything to do with her dissappearing? Okay, we maybe went a little too far but that's no excuse to kidnap Baby Tooth, I swear if you did something to her then I-"
"JACK!"
The winter spirit winced as North's booming voice interrupted his tantrum. He turned around and looked over the banister, down to the globe room. Standing there were the big Russian and the Tooth Fairy, who didn't look too pleased. Jack gulped. Yes, he definitely was in trouble.
Preparing for the worst, he flew down to his comrades and didn't waste a second to justify himself.
"Alright, I know it's late and Baby Tooth should have been back, but we uh, pulled a little harmless, innocent prank on Phil and then we took a nap and when I woke up she was gone and I looked for her everywhere but couldn't find her and I bet Phil has something to do with-…okay, why is everyone staring at me like I've grown an extra head?!" he asked in irritation.
"Because you did." North said matter-of-factly, an amused tone in his voice.
At first Tooth had been ready to scold him but now she couldn't keep herself from giggling.
"Eh, what?" Jack muttered confused.
Had he missed something?
North called some elves and whispered an order to them, what exactly, Jack didn't understand. After a few moments, which lasted far too long with the two guardians staring and grinning at him, they had come back and handed him a silver hand mirror.
As he looked into it he finally realized what this had all been about.
There on his head, cuddled into his white locks, was Baby Tooth, slumbering with a content expression on her face. Gheez, that little fairy really was a sound sleeper! And no wonder he hadn't noticed her, she was as light as a feather.
"Oh." he stated casually.
North let out a hearty laugh while Tooth just stared at him like a child would stare at a cute little puppy. The sight was just so adorable.
"Sorry…I guess?"
"Aww, it's okay Jack, just make sure to not wear her out that much next time, can you promise that?"
"Yeah, of course. We'll just have to be more careful and prank someone who won't chase us all day." he shrugged.
The Tooth Fairy raised an eyebrow at him, North shook his head snorting and in the distance one could hear the approving grunt of a certain yeti.
