At Moonset

AN: thanks for all the good feedback for In Moonshadows! :D

Here's a small ficlet, my way of working towards the bigger fic i have in mind. Any comments on my take of Pitch? still groping a little with how to balance him out given the canon vs the past I've given him.

Any way, read and the enjoy! – rem

Set a few years after In Moonshadows

Chapter 1

Pitch Black, a few years ago, would have never imagined himself here in North's workshop much less sitting outside the office while the four Guardians were arguing about him as if he were a child that got sent to the principal.

He sat and waited on the absurdly small stool while elves walked around him warily and the yetis were staring at him from across the room. His demeanor had changed completely, from the conniving obsessive self he once was, calmer seemed to be the fitting word for him now. The Nightmare King sighed and studied instead for the hundredth time in the last hour the cane on his lap. It wasn't an ordinary cane after all, he and Jack made it together. It was black sand encased in smooth ice, the swirls of black frozen and glimmering in an effort to mimic the night sky and the handle was shaped into the bust of a stallion. He remembered the day they made it, Jack insisting he help make it since it was for him after all it took a few days until it came out as perfect as this.

At the corner of his eye the door opened ever so slightly and a small chubby figure slipped out and parts of the conversation with him.

"You must be off your rocker if you think you can trust him!" it was Bunnmymund of course, he never took the news well from the beginning.

"You didn't see what I've seen. We've been working hard for yea—"

The door was closed and it was sweet silence again.

"Sanderson." Pitch tipped his head in greeting. Ever since he and Jack rediscovered his memories he was slowly becoming who he was but at the same time finding equilibrium with the Pitch Black everyone else knew. Such conflicting personalities and desires were sometimes difficult to control, all the years spent with Jack to meditate and find himself have payed off.

Pitch! Pitch! Are you alright?

He blanked out for a few moments while they were sparing and he noticed he had collapsed on the floor. "I'm alright don't worry yourself." He calculated if he could stand and he managed with less grace than he imagined. Though he was not a guardian and wouldn't die if no one believed in him, it left him extremely weak and he had been consciously refusing to indulge in his darker side and plague a few hundred children's dreams.

That was the day they made his cane.

Sandy smiled and gave him a small salute, conjuring a floating chair so he could sit next to him. Pitch was glad there were no lasting grudges between them, though far back in his memory when they were teacher and student could probably never be again, they were civil at the least.

"Any second chances left for me, do you think?" He breathed the question, he insisted it wasn't necessary to confront the other Guardians, that it was enough they aren't trying to kill each other but Jack had his own plans.

Sandy shrugged, a shape of an angry bunny face floating over his head with big point fangs, mouth moving, spouting unheard words and curses. At that same moment Jack and other other's stormed out, the two sand spirits looked at the scene curiously, boy and bunny having a screaming match.

"What if this is all just another scheme huh? What then?"

"Why can't you trust me on this?"

"I trust you, not him! Remember what happened last time? You know when we were all almost obliterated off the face of the planet?"

"He's changed." Jack lowered his voice now both their faces were only a few inches away from each other, their anger had run away with them. "I take responsibility for anything that happens." The frost spirit turned away from the rabbit to tug at Pitch's hand, leading them below the sky roof.

"What if responsibility's not enough?" the rabbit screamed as the two drifted upwards out of the toy shop.

"I'm the only one who can match him." Jack said evenly and they were gone but the message was there, even with the three combined Jack was truthfully the only one who could match Pitch especially at the level of power the Nightmare King used back then.

"I just don't get why the kid insists on that that- Ugh." He flailed a little, paws up in the air, anger finally dissipating. He tapped his foot on the floor and disappeared into his hole.

The three guardians shared a knowing look, Bunny's anger after all was his defense mechanism when it concerned things he cared about.

Chapter 2

Pitch could feel the emotion radiating through the boy as they floated on the northern wind back home, not really anger but more of frustration. He closed his eyes and gauged how stable his own self was, if the shadows inside him were kept in check. Jack subtly insisted his scared some children (not the traumatizing sort of fear) just so the darker side of his soul would be satisfied enough not to throw a fit and battle for control again. The more they meditated together, the more distinct the two parts of him became, one the General of the gold army, the defender of the Guardians while the other was the embodiment of fear in all living things.

He was let down gently on the top of their tower, sunset only a few minutes away.

"You're troubled Jack." He said simply, and leaned against the wall behind him and watched his companion.

"Spar with me."

"As you wish." The Nightmare King blocked the first attack and the next that came in succession. There were only very few things that provoked the frost spirit like this and the top of his list was his friends, the Guardians, rejection after all was one of his greatest fears.

It was a well learned dance between the two, dodge, block, attack and any talking could be done in between.

"I don't understand why they can't trust me." Jack growled and almost stumbled when Pitch dodged instead of blocked.

"Because of me." Pitch said evenly, his eyes showed his true age and from what he knew he was almost as old as the Man in the Moon. "There's too much history."

"But the others are fine with it!" A strike with more force than necessary.

"They're wary." He scrutinized his friend carefully. "They're waiting for some sign of deceit."

Jack made a frustrated sound, Pitch took the opportunity to knock him over with a sweep. The wind caught the boy just before he hit the ground and he returned the blow that Pitch dodged again. "It's true."

"But you wont do that." Jack's blue eyes looked into the softer topaz eyes of his friend that no longer held the edge of his darker self. "You're not like that anymore."

There was a small twitch on Pitch's features, the demeanor of the battle almost changing completely, now being the attacker and Jack concentrating on his defense.

"Jack when will you understand that you can't deny nature forever." His tone was low and his eyes held a little bit of the darker self in the cage deep inside himself. Pitch at the moment was in his equilibrium, where both his selves were equal. "When." Strike. "Will." Strike. Block. "You. Learn." A scythe made out of sand, Pitch's favored weapon. The Nightmare King's voice raised ever so slightly but it was as good as screaming to Jack. "That you can't control fear!" Strike. Strike.

Jack allows himself to stop, staff brought down and even raising his neck for easier access. The scythe stopped in the same moment, mere inches from a death blow that though immortal it would still be excruciatingly painful. Pitch let out a shaking breath, Jack Frost was either very brave or very stupid to trust him almost literally with his life. "You shouldn't tempt nature, Jack, please. But you have to listen to that ultimatum: as natural as you create frost, you can't destroy fear."

Jack's eyes widened. "That's it!" he paced as if to follow the speed of his thoughts and before he knew it the boy was already riding on a passing breeze.

Pitch blinked, not entirely sure of what just happened but it was enough that he couldn't sense the boy's distress anymore. It was going to be a long night of half heartedly scaring children while Jack would prepare for winter in a few weeks.

Long into the night Jack Frost plotted.

Chapter 3

"Bunny, please I need your help." He tried to look as cute as possible, he was quite sure this would work. "I mean no one can make candy like you!"

"Crickey you just don't give up huh?" Bunny's shoulders sagged in defeat. "Alright. One chance. I'll bring the candy there and only there got it?"

Jack nodded early, wanting to hug the Guardian but boomerangs to the face didn't sound too pleasant. "I owe you."

"Yes kid, you owe me big time and don't you forget it."

When Jack arrived at their spiral tower, he listened. It was almost day break and he was unsure of his companion's mood. He walked through the halls, right hand on the wall and he traced where the Nightmare King was.

Pitch was there, curled up in the corner of his room in a fetal position and waiting for the voices in his head to stop. He hated causing misery in children, the same ones he swore once long ago to protect.

Jack sat on the floor a few feet away from him, leaning his staff against the wall next to Pitch's cane, he reached out slowly to stroke the other's hair. It was a small gesture that Pitch leaned into, these rare moments of physical touch , Jack realized before, was necessary to keep this man grounded in the present.

It would go farther than this he told himself and something stirred from an old memory years before when Pitch would sometimes lose control. It was a rough night he remembered in flashes to the degree he was unsure which was more dominant pleasure or pain but he wanted it all the same. It should have been enough to betray any trust that could be given but he forgave him, the man that collapsed in on his knees to atone for the misdeed. Pitch sensed the emotion invoked by the past and pulled away, muttering and hanging his head in apology away from the touch. He was the only one who couldn't forgive himself and there was much to forgive that he only started remembering again.

"You're alright Pitch." Jack told him, not attempting to touch the other again tonight. "I found a way you could scare kinds without hurting them or scaring them for life."

Chapter 4

Pitch waited in the shadows behind the door as the footsteps drew closer, friends egging and challenging each other's bravado to open the door. He knew all their fears by heart. Ahh, this one is afraid of spiders, he smirked to himself and changed the Nightmare's appearance into the appropriate shape.

A scream and running and the boy's friends catching him before he could escape, the Nightmare made a show of melting when the flashlight hit it "Come on guys! The treasure room is this way!"

And the night continued with more children trudging to his haunted house, either daring each other or genuinely looking for a scare, where the bravest of them would bring home the most special candy to show to their friends and be the envy of the playground.

The solution seemed so simple that the three Guardians and Pitch stared at the structure in front of them with a mixture of awe and 'why didn't I think of that?'

"If we can't control fear we can control its context." Jack grinned, very much pleased with himself and so far none of his friends have opposed his idea yet. "Halloween is a good a time as ever to scare kids and not traumatize them for life."

"I can't believe I'm saying this kid but this might actually be a good idea." Bunnymund's arms were crossed as he studied the whole set up. It was one of the older abandoned houses that Jack managed to decorate with help from some of Tooth's minifairies and completing the whole theme with candy he wormed out of Bunnymund. "But how will kids know to come here?"

"Fliers." Jack beamed at his plot. "I figured since its Halloween anyway we could be out in the open and say it's a costume."

A night of playful scaring children (who odd enough wanted to be scared) began.

Pitch sat on the edge of the old house, comfortably warm and elated from all the children that began to believe in him again, not just hiding under the bed now but in the closet too and generally anything that when 'bump' in the night, candy was also a good motivator for the children to come to his haunted house. Sunrise was fast approaching.

Jack drifted down next to him, their hands so close but not touching. "How are you feeling?"

"For all my intelligence, I should call myself stupid for not seeing that solution sooner." Pitch closed his eyes and sighed contently. Balance was everything for him now, the General in him approved of this compromise and the Nightmare King was content to feast on fear despite how he came about it.

"Do you still… miss her?" the frost spirit mutters quietly, noting the unconscious habit the other has of pressing his palms again a spot on his chest, right where a locket should be.

"Sometimes."

As the sun slowly peaks over the horizon, Pitch's hand lightly strays on top of his and the chill comfort the Nightmare King with a small pain he remembers and for some reason cant help but grow extremely fond of.

Jack does not say anything, the smile on his face enough to tell Pitch he was on his way to doing something right. He slips them both into the shadows, he has much to say, much to tell but instead he remains quiet and gingerly holds more of the frost spirit in his hands.

He's not afraid. Jack understands the gesture and returns it ever so slowly so he doesn't scare away the bit of boldness that he was shown. He aligns their two forms, admiring again how they fit each other (at one point the fit wasn't so seamless, all this happened one night as if a tailor saw how they made a whole and not a pair) and Jack becomes content to just hold the other's taller form again his own.

Pitch snakes his arms around him in the way his shadows would clock him time and again if he willed it. "You should stop doing things for me Jack Frost, my debt in you grows larger each day."

Jack shrugs "It keeps you around" he remarks cheekily wiggling gently out of the embrace. "But if you really want to know something," his tone turns sly "which I'm not saying that I know, you'll have to catch me first." Almost immediately the wind takes him up into the air. "There might be a kiss in it for you, if you'd like one."

Pitch blushes. The reserved General of the before times shows more now, or rather it brings the true nature of Pitch Black to the surface. Pride tells him he shouldn't be outsmarted again. Light heartedly he gives chase, smiling in a way the other Guardians (except for Sanderson maybe) have never seen, today was a good day and the day was still young.