Authors Notes: Hey everyone, welcome back! I know I said I'd try to update in February but that clearly didn't happen. Sorry for the long period of time without an update, hopefully next time will be shorter because I actually have an idea of what I want to happen next chapter.

I'm sorry if it gets intense, I just want to write good, yes, me, job good. (I know that was improper grammar that was the joke) Critique is always appreciated since I need to improve my writing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or anything, I'm just writing a dumb fanfiction.

Chapter 3: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

While grogginess fogged his vision, and the same aches still plagued his joints like with most mornings lately, today his pains were also matched with renewed enthusiasm. Jack was happy to have someone new to talk to. After being in isolation for so long Jack found that the more friends he could make the better. While Jack appreciated all of his friends somehow Pitch was different. Even as the guardian of fear, Pitch gave Jack a certain feeling of security the younger spirit felt he could cling on to. Not only could he relate better to Jack than anyone else, but Pitch made feelings arise in Jack he didn't know existed, or could exist within his frost bitten body. It was more specific kind of warmth that spread from the pit of his stomach to all of his limbs. This sensation was caused by the thought of Pitch, and it only caused a large grin to spread across the young spirit's face, and added a light skip into his step. With such euphoric feelings it was no wonder Jack was eager to meet with Pitch once more. While the darker of the two still made him a little nervous, it wasn't the same anxiety enduring fear he had felt before. It was more like the fear of the unknown, enough to make you weary but not deter your curiosity.

Jack had even tried taking a nap to encounter Pitch sooner. Usually the ground was a comfortable enough place for him to doze off, with limbs weak and weary from a long day of play. In the light of the morning he found the earth too hard and bumpy to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in. Jack's limbs twitched with excitement and energy, causing him to not be able to lie still for more than three seconds. He counted the seconds, but after three he always began to roll around in frustration. Eventually Jack grew tired of the endless tossing and turning and gave up trying to sleep. He then lifted himself up of the ground with more bounce and energy than necessary, springing into a sprint on the search for a little fun to pass the time.

No sooner as Jack had begun his search for his fun did he find it. Today for Jack, fun was in the shape of sliding down a steep slope, crashing, and spending the entirety of the afternoon building ramps out of ice to try and outdo the previous wipe out. Jack didn't even realize how the seconds morphed into minuets, which blurred into hours. Jack was having so much fun that he didn't even notice the dark arrive, not until he saw the white snow had tinged grey with the arrival of the overcast sky. The coming of night excited Jack, and if it weren't for his physical exhaustion from running around all day he probably wouldn't have been able to fall asleep. It was this loss of feeling in his limbs that made it so easy to lie down in the soft snow, letting it envelope his body in its cool embrace. Jack hummed at the familiar comfort and let his eyes flutter shut with thoughts full of onyx hair and golden eyes.

When Jack's eyes reopened he found himself once more surrounded by darkness. The young frost spirit smiled. While the darkness before only filled him with a foreboding sense of dread, now it was filled with promises of meeting Pitch once more.

"Ollie ollie oxen free Pitch!" Jack called out into the darkness "I know you're here!"

As soon as the words had left Jack's mouth a flurry of movement rippled through the shadows, and revealed a smirking Pitch.

"Eager are we?" Pitch asked with a coy smile.

"But of course, I've been waiting all day to see you." Jack responded grinning happily at the older spirit; because in all honesty he had.

"Oh?" Pitch asked jokingly, cocking his head to the side. "Should I be worried or happy?"

Jack let out a small laugh still smiling at the taller spirit "What do you think?"

"I'm honestly not quite sure, Jack, you've been quite hostile towards me in our past meetings." Pitch mused, giving Jack a sideways glance.

"Oh come on Pitch!" Jack barked out in a half chuckle, letting himself fall onto the heels of his feet in exasperation.

"Oh nothing Jack, I'm going to need you to show me whether I truly should be ill at ease or not." Pitch finished with a smirk that seemed to hold a hidden innuendo.

"I'll show you!" Jack shouted picking up some snow and packing it into a snowball.

"Jack…" Pitch let out warily to deaf ears as Jack threw the snow ball at the taller spirit. It hit the Pitch's face with a splat, the white powder contrasting sharply with his grey skin. Pitch wiped the snow off his face with a grimace that made Jack begin to regret his actions. Surprisingly enough Pitch's frown was quickly replaced with a coy smirk "Oh so you want to play do you?" Pitch rhetorically asked the frost spirit before him. "Well then we can play."

Jack quickly found himself alone, surrounded by nothing but trees and darkness "Oh come on Pitch, don't be such a spoil sport!" Jack shouted into the darkness with a pouty frown.

"If you want to play Jack you'll have to find me first." Pitch called from the darkness, hidden by the shadows of the night.

Jack's frown turned into a grin at the challenge. He then burst into a sprint through the dark woods. Jack had no idea where he was running, but he figured it had to get him somewhere. He dodged trees and branches, swerving through the dense wooded terrain as nimble as a hare. Jack's eyes surveyed the darkness around him, searching for Pitch's figure and obstacles in his path. In mid leap over a fallen branch Jack found himself in the grasp of a captor. Jack let out and undignified shriek, limbs flailing in a desperate attempt to free himself. Pitch only chuckled at the actions "It seems rather than finding me, I found you..." Pitch finished by holding the wiggling spirit closer to himself.

"No fair!" Jack pouted only squirming slightly less against the tight hold of Pitch's arms.

"Really?" Pitch asked nuzzling his face against the nape of Jack's neck.

Jack let out a deep sigh and gave a weak glare to the spirit nuzzling him "Cheat."

"I don't remember saying that I wasn't allowed to find you." Pitch whispered laying a kiss on the spot where he had been nuzzling a second ago. Jack groaned at the feeling, letting his head fall back so his neck arched exposing more flesh to Pitch's wandering lips. Pitch simply smirked into the skin at the sound, laying more butterfly kisses up Jack's neck, and onto his jaw line. The air was thick with anticipation as Pitch's mouth moved upward. Jack was not a patient being and tried moving his head to meet Pitch's lips. Pitch grasped Jack's jaw in a firm hold.

"Patience patience Jack, no need to rush just yet" Pitch cooed letting his tongue trail on the shell of Jack's ear "There will be plenty of time for that later…"

Jack let out a sharp gasp as Pitch bit his ear, nibbling on the sensitive flesh. This caused Jack to let out a sharp gasp. Pitch licked over the swollen spot, and then let his tongue trail down Jack's ear once more until he reached the lobe. Smiling he whispered "Do you want to kiss me Jack?"

Half heartedly glaring at the darker spirit, Jack spit out, "What do you think?"

Pitch let out a "tsk tsk" as he scolded the spirit in his hold "Now Jack that's not a proper answer. For all I know you want me to leave you here all by yourself."

"No!" Jack answered much too quickly "No…I-I don't want you to leave." Pitch looked at Jack soaking in the sight before him. The frost spirit's face was filled with anxiety. Not the unadulterated kind that plagued small children whose fathers had left to get cigarettes never to return, but the fear of abandonment was there. He and Jack knew being alone all too well. This fear had such a sickly sweet scent that made his toes curl. It was a fear that filled his lungs even when alone. Years left wondering in the background did things to you, made you doubt things others knew were solid. Made you think that any sort of companionship could slip away at any moment. It wasn't something guaranteed, but something you had to cling onto for dear life. Everyone grows weak; no matter how strong their grip is, so it almost seemed inevitable to lose those you held close. Pitch knew Jack didn't want to lose him…at least not just yet. These feelings made Pitch want to devour Jack's fear, and at the same time to banish it. Cast it out into the depths of the dark that even he could not reach. There was something about fear on Jack's face that just didn't seem right. It was tainted beauty, like trash in freshly fallen snow.

"Oh Jack, I couldn't leave you," He whispered bringing his hand up to the spirit's white face "You're much too fun." Pitch stroked his thumb against Jack's cheek watching the other spirit's expression soften. Jack grinned at the other, halfway tempted to punch Pitch in the arm. Instead he let his eyes close and leaned into the touch, eager for the contact. Jack felt safe wrapped up in Pitch. It was the feeling of when he first made contact with Pitch again. The warmth of his arms promised to protect him from everything else with their embrace. It was quite Ironic really; the nightmare king chasing away nightmares. Jack's actions only fueled the need inside of Pitch, the desire to be wanted. The more Jack gave the more Pitch wanted. Pitch crashed their lips together; his movements being influenced entirely by his desperate need to devour the other. Jack returned the movements, just as hungrily as Pitch. Tongues and teeth clashed in against each other in a sloppy battle for dominance, each wanting to take over the other. The two spirits wanted to consume each other, mesh their bodies into one so that they would never separate. This desire caused Pitch's hands to slide from Jack's face to his stomach, and then slid under his hoodie. Jack groaned and clung onto Pitch's hair as his hands continued to explore the shorter spirit. Pitch's hands moved all over the toned chest only stopping to play with Jack's hardened nipples. Jack broke the kiss only to let out a moan.

This sound stopped all of Pitch's movements, as if a bucket of ice cold water had been thrown onto him. At the sudden halt of activity, Jack looked up at Pitch "What's wrong, why did you stop?" He asked with eyes full of concern.

"This is wrong." Pitch responded, recoiling against his own words.

"What is?" Jack asked again not understanding what was going on with the Nightmare king.

"You're too pure, to naïve Jack." Pitch responded solemnly "I'm afraid this won't end well."

"Wait, what? How Pitch?" Jack rushed out with a confused glare.

"You have to ask, which only helps to prove my point Jack. We're going places we cannot return from. I am king Midas, but my touch turns things into darkness rather than gold. If I touch you I'll take you to the point of no return, and it is not a nice place to be. Jack. This is where a being of the light can be consumed by its own nightmares, and turned into a creature of the afterhours. Where shadows never sleep, and past regrets fester in your mind like open wombs. It isolates you from all that you once knew, turning you a bitter shell of your former self. The mixture of loneliness and regret will only corrupt you further. It is a long and slow process but once it starts it never stops. You'll soon embody all of the things that you once hated, and become a monster. No one will want to be around you." Pitch continued talk, beginning to talk more about himself than Jack "You didn't know! You were just so afraid, so worried! You chased something you could not catch, held onto an illusion as if it was true." Pitch's eyes widened and then turned into slits as he caught himself. "No. I don't wish to take you there Jack."

Jack shook his head at the statement "Oh come on Pitch yo-"

"I said no Jack!" Pitch shouted, his whole body shaking. Jack simply stood there in shock with watery eyes, threatening to spill over into tears at any moment.

"'You've begun to think of me as someone I'm not. I think it's time you woke up." Pitch finished in a cold tone.

Jack shot up eyes wide and gasping for air. He just sat there like that for a minute, looking around at the empty area clinging to his chest. His body stayed rigid even when he saw he was now surrounded by the light of day. The words of the nightmare king still hung heavy in his mind. Jack couldn't believe what had happened, everything had been so good and then it had all gone so wrong. Jack should have been happy that Pitch cared about him so much, that he wanted to protect Jack, but Jack wanted to do the same for Pitch. He didn't want to be pushed away. They were supposed to be together, keep each other from being alone. Soon Jack's vision began to fuzz, making him realized there were tears streaming down his cheeks. Jack fiercely rubbed his hands over his eyes rubbing away the tears. No, he wouldn't cry, nor would he give up. He was not a doll or a child and would not be treated as such. No matter what Pitch said, what they did wasn't wrong. It wasn't hurting anyone, and if anything it was helping them. There was only so much that words could to do comfort someone, to show the intimacy of their feelings. Jack only felt warmth when Pitch touched him. With great determination, Jack lifted himself off the ground in search of the Boogie man. It was time that they had a talk face to face.