Happy
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I'm happy
Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do
- Pharrell Williams, Happy, watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM
Neither Tooth nor Jack could say how long they stayed in that room, relaxing in each others' presence and exchanging soft murmurs and softer touches, reveling in finally being able to be open about their feelings and courtship.
The baby teeth who had arrived with Baby Tooth left after a bit, their breaks over, heading back to Punjam Hy Loo for coins to take to the children and to spread the news among their sisters.
Baby Tooth had chosen to stay, for now, curled up on Jack's chest, and Tooth felt the urge to indulge her. Jack ran a gentle finger over Baby Tooth's head, smiling as she nuzzled her cheek into his hand, before taking a closer look at her and frowning.
"Tooth...is Baby Tooth...a little bigger than the other girls? And more...blue?" he asked hesitantly.
Tooth paused in her idle preening of Jack's hair (which he'd been enjoying more than he wanted to admit) to look down at her daughter, who was waking under the attention.
"It's because you Named her," Tooth said quietly. "She's as much yours as she is mine, now. She might keep changing to be all yours, might have even if we hadn't been courting."
Jack looked stricken at the revelation, twisting to look up at Tooth. "But...I never meant to...it was so quick..."
"It's all right, Jack," Tooth soothed. "I kept forgetting to tell you, I thought we'd have more time before she started to change to introduce you to the idea."
Jack looked down at the tiny fairy in his hands. "I can't take it back...and I'm sorry, but I don't think I'd want to," he admitted. "I love her, Tooth. But," he held Baby Tooth a little closer, glancing up at Tooth, "what about the others? I helped them when they chose their names, is that going to affect them too?"
Tooth's wings stilled for a moment, thinking it through as quickly as she could. "I...hadn't considered it. I'm fairly sure it won't. No, I'm sure it won't. They chose the names, after all. You just provided them." She pressed against Jack's side, resting her head on his as she thought before nodding firmly. "I'm not sure I ever thanked you for that. The girls are so happy, Jack. They're getting their own personalities now, more than ever before, and no one else can try taking them from me. It's a good thing, Jack," she added firmly when he looked unconvinced. "Did Baby Tooth choose a second name when you helped the others?" she asked suddenly, struck by a sudden thought.
Jack looked a little embarrassed even as Baby Tooth preened. "I...kind of picked one out for her," he admitted. Tooth laughed softly, stroking a finger down her daughter's head.
"No wonder she's changing so quickly. Twice Named and Claimed. Is it a secret?"
Baby Tooth giggled and flew up to whisper her second name to her mother before returning to Jack's hands, and Tooth bit back a happy gasp.
Rani, he'd named her, Rani, his little princess, little lady, his special one, an extra bond between them.
Tooth hugged Jack, nearly crying with delight. "It's perfect."
Jack worried at his lip, grin twitching at the corners of his mouth as he glanced down at the fairy he still held. Before he could say what he was thinking, a knock sounded at the door, Bunny stepping inside.
"Oy, do I need to get a hose?" he called as he cleared the door, smirking at the pair. Jack stuck his tongue out at him even as Tooth said, "We're just talking, Bunny," with a touch of amused exasperation in her voice.
"Talkin'. Sure ya are," Bunny drawled, giving them a wink. "Got lots to clear up, don't ya?"
"You're one to talk," Jack fired back, grin falling into place. Bunny shrugged, unrepentant, and let the jab slide this one time. He wasn't good at talking things out anymore, and they all knew it.
"Puck's back," he said instead, letting the teasing drop. "An' the rest of the spirits are here. Hope you've got some o' that sass ready, 'cuz we got a treaty to renegotiate and terms fer breakin' the last one ta hash out."
Jack and Tooth followed Bunny to what Jack mentally dubbed "The War Room", a larger room with a round table in the center and maps tacked all over the walls. Jack hesitated at the door while Bunny strode in confidently. He may project confidence, but Jack knew that a few short years before, he'd still been considered a minor spirit, actual power levels and fearful respect of the other winter and autumn spirits notwithstanding, and therefore beneath the notice of the major spirits already in the room.
...not that he tended to flaunt just how powerful he could be, so he supposed he could understand no one here really knowing how strong he was.
At least none of the other winter spirits were here. General Winter and the Snow Queen were pretty powerful, but apparently not powerful enough. Of course, if they could be beaten up by him, maybe they weren't that powerful after all.
A few years ago, none of the spirits in the room beyond would have so much as looked in his direction...unless they'd wanted a dance, but they were too busy for fun, for the most part, so he probably would have gotten freaked out, declined (which would probably have been something along the lines of a doppler effect nope fading into the distance) , and gotten out of there as fast as possible.
Tooth paused on her way into the room, looking back at Jack questioningly. He grinned back, straightening and taking a better grip on his staff. He was a Guardian now, and the Spirit and Bringer of the Autumn and Winter, fiancee of the Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies – and he was equal to any of the spirits in that room, no matter what they thought.
Jack glanced around the room, taking stock before he was noticed. Mother Nature was speaking quietly to Amaterasu in a corner of the large room, both of whom he only recognized from a vague feeling for the one and thanks to images he'd seen from the times he'd stopped by Japan for the other. He didn't recognize most of the others, save Queen Maeve standing in isolation against the far wall, and he had to bite back a yelp of surprise as Puck took his distraction as an opportunity to sneak up on him.
"Hey there, frosty dancer," they teased, draping an arm over Jack's shoulders and ignoring his half hearted glare, giving a little squeeze. Jack rolled his eyes and raised his arm, returning the half-hug. "Got yourself in a bigger mess than usual, didn't ya."
Jack snorted. "You say that like this is my fault," he said, pretending insult. "They were the ones stealing children."
"Yeah, but you're too pretty to pass up," Puck teased. Jack rolled his eyes and elbowed Puck, who ignored the jab. "So, did you and Queen Toothiana have a nice...talk?"
Jack gave Puck a friendly, if hard, shove, face frosting over hard and fast. "Yes, and that's all we did, thank you!" He gave a huff of breath at Puck's unrepentant face, grabbing their hand to pull them into a corner. "Look, we've been courting for awhile now, and we're really good friends, but we hadn't actually talked things through until now."
Puck's expression turned sly. "But she's already talking marriage, ain't she? That is the traditional ending to a fae rescue, yanno. Maeve's irritated enough with ya'll for what ya pulled off without forgetting to add the traditions to it."
Jack blushed and his eyes unfocused, looking so star struck Puck could only gape at him for a second before laughing, slapping the frost spirit on the back. "Hey, cheer up, it's only for a hundred years," Puck laughed. Jack blinked, coming back to reality sharply, looking over at Puck with tilted head and confused eyes.
"Oh, ya didn't know?"
"Kindly remember you're talking to the spirit nearly everyone basically avoided for around three hundred years," Jack said dryly. "Marriage certainly wasn't a topic mentioned."
"Avoided unless they wanted a dance," Puck amended for Jack. When Jack just glared at them, they sighed, relenting. "We fae do it different, like just about everything else, but spirit marriages last for a hundred years. You still want to be married when the century's over, you do a re-commitment ceremony. You don't, no harm no foul, go your separate ways. Buncha high-rankers like this group came up with it to help out marriages gone bad, like Zeus and Hera. So when's the big day?"
Jack chuckled, relaxing. "We don't know. I mean, yeah, we've been courting, but everything's happened so fast."
Puck gave him a shoulder bump. "Well, just don't forget to invite me. C'mon, I think they're ready to get down to business."
They were, and if it weren't for Tooth's hand holding his under the table – and occasionally migrating to his leg for a quick, surreptitious squeeze – and Puck's equally bored poking, Jack might have fallen asleep and faceplanted onto the table right in the middle of the meeting.
Yeah, he was interested, but they were droning on and on and on. Treaties had to be precise when it came to spirits, more so for fae, or they'd find loopholes everywhere...but it was tedious.
At this rate, they were going to be here for days.
Puck gave Jack an elbow to the side abruptly, and the room snapped to attention as Puck reached out and snagged the treaty away from North.
"Here, give us that," they said, ignoring the shocked looks they got. "Oh, this won't do, won't do at all. Look at this Jack, just look at it," they declared, a swirl of their hand producing two pairs of rhinestoned reading glasses, handing the pair decorated like frost over to Jack. "It's so utterly unfair to us fae."
Jack accepted the glasses with a smirk that made Tooth's stomach clench with a surprised mixture of attraction and unease, hopping up to crouch on the chair as he preferred, three hundred years of living outdoors leaving him a touch feral and uncomfortable in proper chairs. "No, but if we take this bit out, it's better."
"But I don't like this bit over here," Puck whined, pointing.
"Can't take that out, I know you, you'll exploit that for ages. Gotta be fair to us to yanno," Jack shot back with a smirk. Puck smirked back, which apparently sent a silent signal to Jack, because suddenly it was on.
Tooth sat back and let the words wash over her, unable to keep up with the sudden, rapid fire negotiating. Both of them were overacting outrageously, dramatically offended gasps and flailing gestures, accusing each other of ripping out hearts and utter betrayal, and other such exaggerations as they worked their way through the treaty, ignoring everyone else in the room.
Chancing a glance around the room, Tooth bit back a giggle. Every eye was focused on the show Puck and Jack were putting on – and, quite possibly, a few of those looks were rather appreciative of the glasses gracing Jack's face, which she had to admit were surprisingly attractive – and she doubted any of them were paying attention at first to realize just how shrewdly they actually were negotiating. She certainly had no intention of pointing it out – if nothing else, it would run the fun Jack and Puck were so obviously having. Plus, this was the most enjoyment she'd ever had at one of these meetings.
Added bonus, despite how silly he was being, watching Jack be so competent was quite...interesting.
Tooth kept expecting someone to interrupt Jack and Puck's negotiation – one of the more serious spirits in particular, like Mother Nature, who was not known for her patience when it came to spirits, or Bunny, but they didn't.
Bunny, she noticed with some amusement, actually looked like he couldn't decide between being concerned and upset with Jack – or laughing his head off.
Catching his eye, Tooth gave a little nod to Jack, mouthing silently, "Who knew?"
Bunny managed to bite back a snort of laughter, both of them glancing around the table. King Oberon and Queen Titania looked the least surprised, though they both guessed Jack had surprised everyone here. Tooth supposed it was only to be expected – Puck was, technically, aligned with King Oberon, even if he was more of a free agent now, so they had experience with tricksters.
Queen Maeve looked quite disgruntled about the turn things had taken – tricksters were harder to deceive than any other spirit, and now there were a pair of notorious ones debating the treaty that was going to bind all of them.
North was gaping, eyes reflecting his center as he watched the byplay go down. It was a gamble on who would start laughing first, he or Sandy.
The other, older spirits were wearing varying degrees of affronted amusement. Still, they were sitting back and watching rather than interfering as Jack and Puck continued, ignoring the other spirits, and Tooth could see the dawning realization across everyone's faces as the level of negotiation at play registered to them.
Even as Tooth turned back to watch, Puck spit into his hand, Jack following suit before smacking their hands together, shaking them firmly.
Jack slid the treaty, with the changes he and Puck had agreed upon, back over to North, the paper's slide against the table's wood loud in the suddenly silent room.
Finally one of the older spirits, Tooth wasn't sure who, asked, "...what just happened?"
To everyone's surprise, it was Mother Nature who broke first and began laughing. Most of them were sure she had forgotten how to laugh.
"It would seem the Guardians finally have a negotiator of some skill on their side," she said when she finally managed to calm. "It's about time. Perhaps now you may try negotiations rather than brute force, yes?" she added with a raised brow, still obviously amused. "If only since now they'll have less chance of swindling you."
She took the treaty from North and glanced over it, though Tooth was fairly sure she actually read every bit in that seemingly quick glance, and touched the bottom of the paper, leaving her signature.
Maeve huffed as the other spirits copied Mother Nature, signing the treaty and preparing to leave. She signed the treaty with poor grace, glaring at the section dealing with what was to happen to her and her fae who had broken the earlier treaty. Five years Underhill for each child, with a provision that the years under hill matched those over the hill. It could hardly be called fair if it passed by in a few seconds for the fae, after all.
It had been agreed that Jack, as the injured party, would decide his own reparations with the aid of Tooth and Puck within the week.
"You're leaving already?" she asked mildly as the spirits drifted toward the door, mildly enough that most of the spirits looked at her askance. "Aren't you going to stay for the wedding?"
There was a heavy, interested pause, many of the spirits glancing over at Jack and Tooth. After all, they hadn't hidden why the Guardians had gone charging Underhill...
"It's the traditional ending for this type of story," Maeve said, still mild but with eyes hungry and vicious.
Puck gripped Jack's arm quickly, giving a squeeze. The older a spirit, the more they valued traditions...and the spirits in this room were very old indeed.
"So it's true, Queen Toothiana," Oberon said, resting his elbow on the table and leaning his head on his palm, watching Jack and Tooth with interest. "You've finally chosen a spirit to court."
"The dance club will be displeased," his Queen said, laughing. "We all thought you'd never find someone...worthy," she added, eying Jack curiously, and Tooth bristled.
"He is more than worthy, and he is mine. There will be a wedding," Tooth said firmly, rising from her seat and taking Jack's hand, "and it will be soon, but it will not be now."
North, Bunny, and Sandy cut off the burgeoning protests when they stood, silently supporting Jack and Tooth. "We will be wed," Tooth repeated, "but on our own time. I'm sure you'll know when, most of you will probably be invited. It's not as though we could keep something as big as two Guardians getting married quiet," she said quietly to Jack when he looked like he would have liked to protest.
Jack nodded, letting go of the idea of a small, intimate wedding. It made sense that two Guardians getting married would be a big deal. "We just realized we were courting," Tooth said quietly. "We want some time to enjoy that before we wed."
"Besides, wedding of this size needs time to plan," North said happily, with a saucy nod, and Jack mentally groaned. "Will be wedding to remember!"
A/N: The song for this one didn't want to cooperate. Well, neither did the rest of the chapter, but still. It looks like there's going to be about 4 more chapters to this story - little hard to tell, since they tend to grow on me, much like the story as a whole did. I'll be sad to see it end, I'm having fun.