From continent to continent, country to country, city to city, and home to home, the Guardians scoured the world for teeth, even collecting the ones a few hopeful children still hid despite the previous day's disappointment.
"Quickly!" North called out, entering and exiting chimneys at record speed.
Aster and Jack had gotten into a competitive race, arguing as usual.
"Are you challenging me to a race of speed, cotton tail?" Jack taunted, surfing on the wind like a sentient leaf.
"You don't want to race a rabbit, mate," Aster warned before doubling his speed, almost leaving Jack in the dust.
"A race?" North perked up, popping down one chimney and popping out of another in the distance, "Is it a race? This is going to be epic!"
In a flash of white, Katherine leaped from roof to roof, her steps graceful and light, "A girl northeast wrote a diary entry about a lost tooth!" she informed them, "Second molar, from the sound of it!"
Sandy popped out of a house, waving that he'd grabbed it.
Katherine nodded in acknowledgment, the pages of her book flipping as she scanned for knowledge, "Mother's social media said her son lost an incisor this afternoon! Five blocks west, southwest!"
North popped down a chimney, "Got it!"
Toothiana was in her element, "Four bicuspids over there! An incisor two blocks east! Is that a molar? They're everywhere! Ack!" she yelped as she slammed face-first into a billboard.
It was all the more ironic because it was a billboard for toothpaste.
"You okay," Jack called.
"Yeah, sorry!" Tooth favored her mouth for a moment, "I'm out of practice. I haven't been out in the field for a long time."
Jack raised an eyebrow, "How long is a long time?"
"Four hundred forty years, give or take!" Tooth admitted before gasping, beelining for another hidden tooth.
Jack shook his head, swooping in to fly alongside the running Katherine.
"Want a lift, madam?" he requested chivalrously, offering his hand to her.
She grinned at him, "And I thought you were incapable of being a gentleman!"
He laughed, "First! Ow! Second! I can be charming!"
"So you try to literally sweep me off my feet?" she teased, causing him to blush under his playful grin.
"Is that a yes?"
"Maybe when we are not on the job!"
"We get it! It's a date!" Aster barked from a nearby roof, running in line with them, "Now kiss and shut your flirtin' already!"
Jack and Katherine gave the buck what could only be described as a deadpan stare.
"Oh, crikey!" Aster slipped on a patch of ice, nearly losing a whisker to a tiny word shot at his face, and tumbled off the roof.
The duo laughed, splitting momentarily to collect a tooth.
"By the way, you use those weird word things," Jack inquired when they joined up again.
"The power of words," Katherine corrected, "What of it?"
"Could you use them to fly?"
Katherine swiveled her head, "Jack, there is something you should know," she said solemnly, "The possibilities of words may vary on context," she opened a page, letting the words crawl across her arms, "But the applications are endless!"
She raised her arms, swinging them down, the energy projecting her into the sky.
Jack watched her silhouette against the Moon, his eyes suddenly becoming dreamy as he continued to follow her, "Wow~"
There were a few mishaps along the way, and more than one prank was pulled.
Like when Jack got mad at Aster for poaching a tooth from under his nose and therefore froze the pooka to the wall.
And when North and Aster got stuck in a burrow due to lousy timing before Sandy grabbed the tooth they were after.
And when Aster took revenge on Jack by pit-trapping him with a burrow to a different continent.
And when Baby Tooth attacked a member of Toothiana's European Division (a mouse).
And when Sandy stole a tooth from Jack, who'd stolen it from Aster.
And when Aster lit a fire under North as the Christmas spirit was midway down a chimney, leading to an explosion.
And when Katherine dropped off the map for nearly an hour, leading to a panic before they found her reading stories in a children's hospital.
All in all, they all felt pretty satisfied with their work, each displaying their haul of teeth to Tooth well before the morning hours.
"Wow! You guys collect teeth and leave gifts as fast as my fairies!" Tooth praised.
The others paused, realization and embarrassment relevant on their faces.
Tooth looked at them in disbelief, "You guys left the gift, right?"
She was met by more silence while Sandy nodded but instantly shook his head on rethinking the question.
Katherine looked ready to kick herself, knowing she, of all people, had no excuse to plead ignorance.
"Goose, where can we get gifts?" North whispered from the corner of his mouth.
Katherine sighed, licked her thumb, and flipped through the pages of her book.
It looked like work would take a little longer than expected.
"Jamie Bennett. Lost his left central incisor. Knocked out in a freak sledding accident," Tooth narrated, looking at the tooth in her hands. She gave Jack a meaningful look, "I wonder how that could have happened, Jack?"
Jack let out a nervous chuckle, ignoring the pointed look sent at him for a prank committed only just that day, "Kids, huh?"
He made a point of covering a rough crayon drawing of Jamie sledding off a steep ice ramp.
Tooth sent him a fond look, flipping a coin in her hand before placing it under the pillow. She stepped back, her features softening as she watched Jamie's sleeping face.
"This was always the part I loved the most..." she admitted, looking nostalgic, "Seeing the kids..." she wrapped her arms around herself, "Why did I stop doing this?"
Jack looked on, looking thoughtful, "Feels different up close, huh?"
"Thanks for being here, Jack," Tooth expressed her sincere gratitude, "I wish I'd known about your memory. It could have helped you."
"Yeah, well..." Jack shrugged, "I wasn't completely alone, now that I think about it. We'll get you taken care of, and then it's Pitch's turn."
Toothiana smiled in response, resting a hand on his shoulder, "It's good that you treasure Katherine so much. She's been through the most out of all of us before the Moon made us Guardians," she turned a sad smile towards the night sky through the window, "She tried to take it all on alone and didn't accept our help at the start, but when she lowered her defenses and let us in, she guided us to who we are today."
Jack studied his feet, a little embarrassed of hearing this only two hundred years late, "Yeah, she's pretty special."
"Your two meeting each other probably wasn't a coincidence," Tooth speculated, "When our battle with Pitch was over, she isolated herself at Ganderly and seldom left there except for missions. I noticed she started growing brighter and a lot happier a couple of centuries ago. You helped her heal, Jack."
Rubbing his neck in embarrassment, Jack avoided eye contact with the fairy, "She did much more for me than I did for her..."
Tooth shook her head, "Don't sell yourself short. Remember, you have something special that the Moon sees in you. I know Katherine sees it too."
They were interrupted by the sound of North squeezing himself through the bedroom window with Sandy in tow, "What give slow pokes?"
Tooth shushed him, pointing at Jamie.
North and Sandy's mouths formed an 'o' as they tiptoed through the room.
"How you feeling, Toothie?"
"Beleived in!"
North let out a quiet laugh from deep in his stomach, "That's what I want to hear!"
A burrow hole opened up in the middle of the floor, "Oh, I see..." Aster peeked his head out, glaring at them accusingly, "All working together to make sure the rabbit gets last place!" he looked around, noticing one of them missing, "Where's Goose?"
"There was a child who couldn't sleep in Norway, so I stopped to read them a story," Katherine whispered as she climbed through the window.
Jack failed to hide an evil smile as a random thought tickled his funny bone, "Do you ever think of how weird it is all of you break into people's homes and privacy so often?
North waved him off, "When we become Guardians, we become the children's family," he placed a meaningful hand on his cutlass, "Even when no one else will, we will be there for them," he exchanged meaningful looks with his fellow Guardians, "As long as they need us."
"Kind of sad if they'll abandon us eventually," Jack pointed out.
Katherine shook her head, "Abandon? No!" her grey eyes turned to Jamie, a soft smile gracing her features, "With each new generation, the values and stories we possess are passed down, bringing new children for us to care for. No one can replace any of these kids, but if they grow up happy, then that is all we can ever ask for."
Aster shook his head, "If the kid needs this much explaining, he'll never make it as a Guardian, Goose. I really don't know what you see in him."
Jack shot Aster a mean look, dangling a sizable bag of teeth in his hand, "Hey, Peter Cottontail, check it out!"
Aster looked unimpressed, "You call that a bag of choppers?" he held up a larger bag, "Now that is a bag of choppers!"
North stepped forward, motioning them apart, "Gentlemen, gentlemen, this is about Tooth! Not a competition!" he broke out in a jolly grin, "But is it was..." he slammed a massive sack of teeth on the ground, "I win! YEE-"
A flashlight clicked on, catching all of them red-handed.