Well I can dance with you honey
If you think it's funny
Does your mother know that you're out?
And I can chat with you baby
Flirt a little maybe
Does your mother know that you're out?
-Does Your Mother Know?, Abba
/watch?v=WkL7Fkigfn8

Jack settled down on a branch, flopping against the trunk with a sigh. Being seen was awesome, and now it seemed like more and more kids were seeing him every day. (He thanked Jamie and his friends every time it happened, knowing they'd told their friends about him the last time he'd pulled off a major snow day on a week where temperatures had been predicted to be unseasonably warm, and one of them told their big sister who wrote about it on her blog, and...it just grew from there.)

Still, being seen all the time was tiring. He understood a little bit now why the other Guardians tried so hard not to be seen, beyond the 'Belief is stronger without proof' idea, but he couldn't stay cooped up like they did – he had to go out and about to deliver his frost and snow.

If he had his way, Tooth was going to be leaving her palace a lot more too. Palace or not, when you never left it turned into nothing more than a extra large and sparkly cage. The other two he could understand not leaving very often – though that was going to change – but Tooth shouldn't be caged.

He glanced through the window his branch hung next to when music suddenly began to pour through it. Grinning, he laughed at himself. Of all the places to land, of course he would land outside a high school's winter formal.

Something landed lightly in his hair, and he jumped. High pitched laughter met his ears as Baby Tooth swung lightly down from his hair to hover in front of him. Laughing at himself, Jack held out a hand for Baby Tooth to land on.

"Hey Baby Tooth," he said happily. "How's one of my favorite females?"

Baby Tooth chittered at him and he listened carefully. He could only make out about two thirds of what she was saying, but he was getting better at it, he was sure.

"Sounds like you're extra busy," he commented when she was done. "Is your mama letting herself fall back into old habits?"

Baby Tooth rolled her eyes, huffing. He laughed again, stroking an extra gentle finger over her head. "Want me to stop by the palace and try dragging her out?" An emphatic nod was his answer, and he smiled. It was nice to be wanted.

"Deal. For now...need to get back to work?"

Baby Tooth shook her head, looking up at Jack curiously. She may not know what he was planning, but she was sure it'd be fun.

Grinning mischievously, Jack lifted himself from his branch to hover in mid air as Baby Tooth did the same. With a flourish Jack bowed to her, grin still firmly in place.

"If I could have this dance, then, milady?"

Baby Tooth giggled, curtsying back. She'd seen him in action at the party, but hadn't gotten a chance that night. Briefly she wondered if he knew about the rumors she'd heard that evening or what they'd been talking about, but tossed it aside in favor of playing with Jack.

They couldn't dance properly, but they circled each other in the air, spinning circles around the other, Jack gently taking Baby's tiny hand in his or cradling her in his cupped hands when she wasn't spinning around him, both laughing as the wind carried them higher and they danced through the air.

They flew away from town, still dipping and twirling as they headed toward the Tooth Palace.

As they came in sight, a swarm of sparkling green rushed them and Jack laughed loud and long as he was mobbed by off-duty tooth fairies. For a few minutes more he danced with them, laughing as the group of them dipped and twirled, not bothered by little things like gravity, dancing from floor to air to spire.

Finally Jack reluctantly slowed to a stop. The fairies sighed in disappointment even as Jack hurried to apologize, promising them a longer dance later. They accepted the promise philosophically, going back to rest properly before they hurried out into the world again as Jack headed toward command central, as he referred to the center of the Tooth Palace.

Time to try and convince a workaholic fairy she needed to have a little fun and take a little break.

Jack stared at the ceiling and huffed out a sigh. The meeting wouldn't last too much longer before they got to the real business of just being together, but right now, it was bo-ring.

Baby Tooth snuggled against his cheek with a chirp, and he raised a hand for her to step onto. He looked down at her and they shared a moment, both saying clearly without words how bored both were.

Really, Baby Tooth should have been at the palace, overseeing things in her mother's absence, but they'd wanted to see if the others could cover the slack if both had to leave in an emergency – which meant being bored at the meeting for Baby Tooth.

Suddenly grinning, Jack lowered Baby Tooth to the table. She looked at him curiously, matching his grin when he held his hand by her, holding out thumb and ring finger for her to grip.

Giggling silently, he danced her around his section of the tabletop, giving her a little spin now and then. As North's droning speech wrapped up, he scooped Baby Tooth up into his hands, brushing a kiss over her head.

Tooth was trying to pay attention to North, she really was, but despite being the guardian of wonder, he could make things very dull when he got too into the technical details of his job. Enthusiastic, yes, but she'd been lost for the last ten minutes. She suspected Sandy was the only one still paying attention to North by this point.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Baby Tooth and Jack grin at each other and hoped they weren't about to start mischief. Not that she'd blame them, but there were times and places.

Instead, she found herself amused and touched as Baby Tooth started dancing with Jack's hand, a sudden warmth filling her heart as Jack played with Baby Tooth, so gentle with her little girl.

She was fairly sure the other guardians still hadn't realized just how close the little fairies were to being her children. They weren't rough with them, but they weren't gentle the way Jack was.

Before they had really gotten to know Jack, she never would have thought he would be so gentle with anyone, but he really did love her fairies. It was obvious every time he came into contact with them, so gentle and caring each time he was close to her girls.

Her girls told her about it, how he would hold them or let them nap on him, in his pocket or his hair, or...there, as North wrapped up and the dance ended, he brushed a kiss over Baby Tooth's head, just as her girls had whispered he did.

She could love him for the way she treated her girls, she really could.

She had to keep reminding herself that she should think such things about him. He was still getting used to regular interaction with friends, and so was she, really.

It was that party of North's when she had started to hear the rumors that had apparently been going around the spirit world about Jack, besides the rumors of his mischief and pranks, about gentle hands and fiery passion, that made her curious - and confused. She wasn't quite sure what to think about the rumors yet.

Except...her eyes kept wandering away from his teeth to his hands, and more than once she had to push away thoughts wondering if those hands were as gentle as rumor said...and what they'd feel like on her.

A/N: I couldn't get the image of Jack dancing with the baby teeth out of my head. It's my thought that he feels vaguely guilty over what happened to them over Easter weekend 2012, being separated from their mother and caged up and then it took him so long to help them, that they have him wrapped around their little fingers.