Jack was a responsible person. At least, he liked to think he was responsible enough. The situation he was in right now, though, completely argued against that. Flashes of green and blue zoomed past him at lightning speed, an echoing hum of buzzing wings flitting past his ears at every turn. Chirpish laughter followed the whirring, unintelligible noises and squeaking coming from every direction. Possibly they were conversations, but judging by the manic state of the mini tooth fairies, they were more than definitely just nonsensical jabber.
Perhaps, in hindsight, he shouldn't have left the sweet cupboard open after leaving North's kitchen. But then again, how was he supposed to know the little hummingbirds had followed him back?
He was going to be in so much trouble.
Jack sighed taking in the mess around him, running his hand down his face in exasperation. What was he going to do? He gently redirected a runaway fairy who had come zooming in, aiming steadfastly for his teeth. They were just so pearly white, so perfect, how could she resist? Everything looked brighter than normal, everywhere was so swirly and colourful and she loved it.
Banging from the next room caught his attention, Tooth's worried voice ringing out amongst the chaos of the yetis and elves in the workshop.
"Tooths! Where are you?"
Another voice joined her, this one slightly worried as it spoke.
"Don't worry Sheila, we'll find them," Bunnymund attempted to soothe the flittering fairy but without any luck. There was a slight hint of annoyance to his voice, as though they had been looking for quite a while. "They've probably just flown back to Tooth Palace, why don't we go look there?"
"Don't you take that tone with me, Aster!" Uh oh, first name basis. That was never good. "They're here, I know it."
Moon help me, Jack pleaded desperately. She'd be in this room any second, pushing open the great doors to reveal no less than fifty hyper babies, all stuffed so full of sugar they might just pop if they ate one more sweet. Oh moon, the lecture he'd get when she saw him in there too, right at the centre of the pandemonium.
Panicking, Jack did the first thing that came to his mind. And not a second too late, for just as he shoved the last fairy into the sack of flour did Tooth burst through the doors. He immediately stood to attention, scrambling into the most normal pose he could think of, smiling sweetly at the fairy.
"Jack, what are you doing?"
"Nothing," he replied, possibly slightly too innocently as the bag behind him began to buzz with muffled chatter. He shuffled marginally to the side to hide the movement.
Bunny's eyes narrowed in curiously on his steps, then traced slowly up to meet Jack's with a malicious glint gleaming in his eyes. Sugar, he thought, scoffing bemusedly at the irony of the statement.
"Have you seen any of my Baby Tooths?" Toothiana's anxious voice struck the silence. "They've disappeared and I can't find them anywhere."
"Not that I can recall, I'm sure they're okay though. Maybe they're playing with Sandy?"
Tooth continued to flit around nevertheless, somehow not noticing the humming bag as the winter spirit shook his head silently at Bunny, his blue eyes pleading. Bunny smirked, then opened his mouth to speak.
This is it, Jack thought resignedly, I'm about to die. Could immortals even die? He was sure Tooth could find a way. He shuddered, hanging his head in wait for what was about to come.
"Come on Tooth, you can see tha little blighters aren't in here," Surprise overtook Jack's features, his head practically snapping back into place as he looked at the bunny. "Let's try somewhere else."
"Yeah, okay." Tooth sighed, exiting the room with Bunny, but not before he looked back over his shoulder and mouthed 'You owe me' to the still frozen-in-place winter spirit.
What had just happened? Oaken doors closed in front of him, the hum of Tooth's wings fading as the pair carried on. Had Bunny just… helped him? The world must have gone mad.
More muffled chattering brought him out of his stupor and he crouched to open the bag. A dozen fairies flitted out, their colourful feathers disguised by a cloak of white powder. The remaining few stayed in the bag, still obviously drunk on the candy as they made snow angels in the flour, chirping happily at the funny white dust. Jack couldn't help but chuckle.
"Alright, alright, enough snow angels," he laughed again at the fairies' protests as he scooped them into his hoodie pocket and hood. Or would they now technically be flour angels? He shook his head, collecting the last few. "Time to get you cleaned up before your mother murders me."
Or, he thought mischievously, a thought occurring to him, we could take a little detour first. He smirked at the little birds tucked away under his jumper, then at the bag of flour. The many bags of flour, actually. Perfect. They could be back, clean and safe at the Tooth Palace long before Tooth got back and she'd never know where they'd been. Likely, she'd assume she'd been overreacting and that her babies had been home the whole time.
What she didn't know couldn't hurt her, right?
Not even half an hour later, Jack watched from afar as a certain Nightmare King entered his gloomy tunnels, only to be greeted by a desert of white powder covering his floor and fifty sugar-high tooth fairies very happily making flour angels.