Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or realities (unless otherwise stated). I do not make money off of this.

This is not betaed. If you see any mistakes, I would love for you to kindly point them out.

Pitchiner stared through his microscope at some samples of something as the search loudly completed and Pippa burst through the lab doors, her hair a bit messy and a smile on her face.

"Any luck?"

"Oh, yes!" Pitchiner said, shifting his attention between several scientific utensils. Pippa scooched over to where Pitchiner was standing, when suddenly the door opened and a lithe man with bleached hair, skinny jeans and t-shirt burst in.

"Oh, sorry… I di-"

"Jack! Hello! Come in! If you've got the time, anyway." A soft 'I do' carried over from where Jack was standing as he a little shyly stumbled over to the trio. A step in, he remembered to close the door and turned to close it before taking a few long-legged steps over. Pippa smiled at him and then turned to Pitchiner.

"Jack, this is Pitchiner Black." A sound of slight surprise burst from Jack's throat. Pippa shifted her attention to Aster, who was shuffling awkwardly behind Pitchiner. "And uh…" the silence was permeable. "sorry -"

"Aster Bunnymund." Aster looked suspiciously at Jack, wondering who the heck he was. And why he was here. At all.

"Hi…" Jack nearly whispered out as his gaze wandered around the room and then settled on Pitch's slightly hunched back. "So you are the Pitchiner Black I've heard of from this little lady here." Jack slightly nudged her with his elbow, as if in reflex, his eyes remaining mostly on Pitch's form. "She's told me all about you." Jack then seemed to reluctantly turn to Pippa and poke her in the stomach, causing her to giggle and bat his hands away.

He soon turned back though. "Are you on one of your cases?" He then slowly walked over to the other side of Pitch, leaving Pippa to keep talking.

"Jack works in IT upstairs. That's mostly how we met. A bit of office romance and ice." She was nervous, fiddling with her fingers and at one point her right hand darted up to fix her short, tomboyish hair.

Pitchiner looked up from his microscope to peek at everybody except for Aster from his peripheral vision. "Hmm. Gay." He said under his breath leaning down to his microscope again.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Pitchiner turned his head ever so slightly to Jack's direction. "Hello, Jack." He even added a short smile, though even Aster could tell it was fake.

A short moment of silence bloomed tentatively as Pitchiner turned back to his microscope was shattered as Jack accidentally knocked over an empty petri dish from the table and covered the sound with smatterings of sorry! sorry. Oh, sorry. I'm a bit clumsy when I meet people. Aster shook his head and mouthed brat. Nobody noticed, but then again, nobody really does noticed an invalided, damaged war captain.

Once he got himself and the petri dish in order, Jack rocked on the balls of his feet for a few moments, looking around the lab and what Pitchiner was working on. As the silence dragged on, Aster found himself wishing for this Jack to leave them be, he's just disturbing the day today. It was really obvious Pippa was using Jack to attempt to promote some kind of jealousy for her one-sided affections, but it was also obvious to see it wasn't working.

Aster almost sighed in relief as Jack started to leave. "Well, uh… I'll leave you to your work. I've still got something to do upstairs, tedious checking of computers." He did small groan that was supposed to be kind of funny, but when nobody laughed, he just slipped out the room with an accidental brush against Pitch and a conscious touch of the elbow to Pippa. "I'll see you at the Fox, about… uh… sixish?" Aster, while listening couldn't hear a single word containing even the slightest amount of affection.

"Yeah."

"Bye." He was already at the door. How did Jack get to the door already? "It was nice to meet you." Jack was facing toward Pitch, like Aster was useless. Well he was, but not completely! His pride bristled a little bit. Jack waited for an answer a bit expectantly, biting his lip like he was meeting his idol.

Pitch didn't react at all, continuing to look through the microscope. After a few moments, Aster felt almost required to answer for him, "You too." even though it was directed at the brilliant mind (why didn't people say that more?) of Pitch's. Both Pippa and Jack glanced over at him before looking back at Pitch, and Jack took it as his cue to leave the room. Aster could barely restrain his sigh. Something felt off about Jack, but he couldn't tell what just yet.

Pippa crossed her arms over her chest. "What did you mean… gay? We're together. Pippa and Jack."

"And domestic life must really suit you Pippa. You've put on, what, three pounds since I've last seen you?"

"It's only two and a half!"

"Well, that's almost three, you can give me that, eh?" Pitchiner almost sneered, as if trying actively not to piss off the only person who could provide him with a lab.

"Pitchiner…" Aster was reaching the end of his mind. Who the heck was Jack Frost? He shook his head a little. Didn't matter that much, first take care of what mess Pitchiner was creating.

"He's not gay!" She seemed to be holding back the urge to slam her hand on the table. Maybe. Or resisting the urge of slapping Pitchiner. Or destroying part of the lab. Something. "Why do you always have to spoil m-." She visibly forced herself to calm down. "He's not gay. We have a very nice relationship."

"With that level of personal grooming?" Pitchiner drawled out.

"Pitchiner, just because he puts some stuff in his hair doesn't mean anything! I put stuff in my hair!" Aster knew it was time to intervene. Pippa was visibly strained, gritting her teeth and balling her fists at her sides.

"You wash your hair. He grooms his hair. There's a difference. Of course you wouldn't find it." Pitch remained at his microscope and refused to move.

"Alright, I'll bite. Why in the bloody hells would you make such an accusation that would ruin a relationship?!"

"Tinted eyelashes, contouring around the frown lines, minute bits of makeup around his eyes. Then his underwear."

"Underwear?" Aster took a slight step back. Ugh. Underwear. Other people's underwear. You don't just talk about that.

"Well it's visible above the waistline, very visible, that plus the brand."

Pitchiner took a minute breath, but Aster felt like he had been around him enough to know when he took such breaths for such giant speeches. It probably wasn't healthy but Pitchiner would hardly listen to him now, would he?

"That and the suggestive fact that he just left his number under the empty petri dish he so accidentally knocked over." At this, he reached over to the petri dish, and lifted it up to find a small piece of paper reading his number, a smilie face and 'Call me?'. He handed it to Pippa, and when she couldn't release her fists, put it on the table next to her.

Aster would have moved forward if he wasn't just mulling over the fact that the guy from IT, Jack, had just slipped a piece of paper under something that is clear without him knowing about it.

"And I would say, as knowledgeable in what happens next, that you break off the relationship early and spare yourself the later pain."

Pippa bared her teeth, grabbed the piece of paper, accidentally tipping a few other empty petri dishes off the table (making a small visible effort to catch them but not picking them up) before storming out and even slamming the door.

Pitchiner shook his head a little and looked back at the microscope.

I don't know how this came out, mainly because I'm only dipping my toe into the Sherlock fanfiction writing, so please tell me how it came out.
Also, should I keep writing bits and pieces of this universe?