Jack blinked at the other four Guardians, momentarily struck speechless.
"I'm sorry, I must have some frost in my ears or something," he finally said. "Care to repeat that?"
North drew breath, but Bunny cut in first. "We mean exactly what we said, Snowflake. We've been ignoring everybody fer too long. So we thought maybe ya'd be okay wi' introducin' us to yer friends."
The smile that tugged at Jack's mouth was mostly mischief, but there was a good dose of nerves there as well. He leaned on his staff, looking up at Bunny through his bangs. "You sure, Cottontail? Most spirits," Jack's voice broke for a moment but he kept going, not trying quite as hard to hide it as he would have a year ago, "don't really approve of me, so my friends aren't exactly high-class, you know?"
"If they stuck by you, then they must be loyal at the very least," Tooth said.
Jack chuckled, still leaning on his staff. "Yeah, this could go really bad," he said, "but...if you really want to...while we're out and about."
"Have been...how do you say...cooped up for too long, as Bunny said," North replied, slapping Jack on the back, though gently. The hand lingered for a few moments longer before regretfully pulling away. "And perhaps they know more of Krampus, yes? More about what is going on with other spirits that we do not, focused as we are."
"Are you sure Krampus is up to something?" Jack asked, leaning into that hand before it was pulled away and frosting over when he realized what he'd been doing. "I mean, everything's been pretty quiet these past Christmases."
North shrugged expansively. "Just wanted to talk with him. Rumors were rather nasty. Fact that we cannot find him is not helping his case."
"And yet you haven't sent the yetis out after him yet," Jack teased.
North waved it off airily. "Yeti are busy. Not needed for small projects like this."
"You hear that, Bunny? I was a big project," Jack said teasingly. "And so was Easter."
They shared a conspiring grin as Tooth and Sandy hid giggles and North continued on, oblivious to the teasing to come. Bunny and Jack shared a quick grin, and then they were tag-teaming North the rest of the meeting.
Tooth and Jack were flying over someplace possibly near Russia (it was hard to say exactly where they were from up in the air when all that was below them was snow and trees) when they noticed someone waving from below.
If they hadn't been watching they likely wouldn't have seen the waver, as whoever it was wore clothing that blended into the snow, was pale and with hair as white as Jack's, calling up a faint halloo to them.
Tooth hesitated but Jack swung down towards the ground with a whoop, pausing when he noticed Tooth wasn't beside him.
"Come on," he called back. "You wanted to meet my friends!"
Tooth blinked, looking at the couple of her girls who had come along with her. They shrugged back but followed after Jack, and after a moment Tooth let out an excited giggle and followed, catching up to Jack in seconds.
They landed together, though Tooth barely brushed the ground, trying to look without staring at the spirit that had called them down.
