Jack turned and ran, scooping up his staff and taking off into the air. He raced towards Burgess, knowing that's where they would hit first. As the sun was just disappearing behind the mountains, Jack could see Jamie helping little Jeremy build a snowman in their backyard. He jumped down onto their fence.

"Jack-Jack!" Jeremy saw the winter spirit first, pointing up at him with an excited grin.

Jamie looked up with a startled smile. "Jack! I thought you weren't coming until tomorr-"

"Get inside, Jamie," Jack cut him off. He quickly glanced over his shoulder, checking the horizon.

"Jack?" The smile fell from the brunette's face. "What's wrong? Is it Pitch?"

"There's no time to explain. Take Jeremy, and both of you get inside. Now!" Jamie immediately scooped his little brother up into his arms and rushed into the house. As soon as they were safely inside, Jack leapt off the fence, heading to the edge of town. He stood there with his staff raised in front of him, watching the hundreds of nightmares emerge from the shadowed forest, their eyes dancing like golden flames. The sand wolves stalked out of the darkness, snarling and snapping in restlessness. Pitch stood amidst them, his hands clasped behind his back and his golden gaze glaring at the winter spirit. "I won't let you do this, Pitch!" he shouted at him.

The Nightmare King's lip curled back into growl. "Go! Sate your hunger for fear, my pretty little nightmares…" He watched with a low chuckle, as his nightmares surged forward with a deathly howl.

Jack frowned, hoping that the man would change his mind. "So be it…" Before any of the nightmares could even reach the first house, he froze all of those nearest to him. Spinning his staff, he fought off any nightmares that leapt at him, quickly moving from one to the next. He soon found himself surrounded, having distracted them from their goal. They circled him, eying their prey and snapping at his heels, but none of them managed to get a bite in. With a sudden idea, Jack flew high into the air, trying to draw the nightmares away from the town and all of its children.

Just as he predicted, they swarmed after him. As soon as he got as high as he wanted, Jack turned back around, sending a huge blast of his power straight down into the oncoming pack. The blast froze a good many of them, and he watched them shatter into clouds of sparkling black sand that slowly drifted back down to the ground. He dropped a few feet in exhaustion, gripping his staff tightly, but he forced himself to continuing fighting when he saw another wave of nightmares making its way up to him.

The winter spirit kept fighting long after his body had reached a point of utter exhaustion. His muscles ached like they never had before, and his lungs burned for the breath that he just couldn't seem to catch. Despite his best efforts, he once again found himself surrounded, nightmare wolves jumping at him from all directions. He dodged and weaved between each attack, destroying them with his staff. The few that managed to fly by tore at his body with their sharp teeth, leaving him bruised and bleeding from bites all over.

As he pulled back his staff to take a swing at one, he suddenly found that he couldn't move it and had to jump out of the way, barely dodging the attack. Jack looked back to find that a nightmare had managed to clamp down on the wooden hook, refusing to let it go. While distracted by that, another wolf lunged forward, burying its sharp teeth into his other arm. The teen let out a scream of pain, desperately trying to get those fangs off of him. The wolf snarled around the flesh in its jaws.

As he struggled to pull it away, he didn't see another nightmare leap at him from behind. He felt a sudden pain in his back, his eyes widening in shock. Jack's vision started to fade, as the nightmare took over his mind, sending him into his own personal hell.

ZZ

Pitch gasped, something deep inside of him snapping. "No…" He watched, as Jack's body fell from the sky like a brick. At the last second he did his best to use his shadows to cushion the fall, but he still heard a sickening thud upon the impact. He immediately called off the nightmares, rushing towards the motionless body, but he wasn't the first to get there.

"JACK!" Jamie ran from his house, having watched the whole thing from his window. He fell to his knees next to the winter spirit's body, almost afraid to touch him for a moment, before he gently reached out to check for a pulse. "Jack..." The brunette let out a sigh of relief when he confirmed that his friend was indeed alive, but he didn't take solace in the pained expression on his unconscious face. His head snapped up, when he saw the spirit of fear slowly approaching out of the shadows. "You stay away from him!" Jamie got back to his feet, standing over Jack protectively.

The spirit stopped in his tracks for a moment. "Believe it or not, boy, I did not mean for him to get hurt."

"Then why did you release those nightmares?! You knew Jack wouldn't just stand by and let you hurt children!"

Pitch snapped back with a small growl, stalking closer. "He knew the consequences for refusing me! He has known for years and still he thought it wise to refu-" He was cut off when a fist came up, slamming across his face.

Jamie stood there, shaking in rage, too angry to take into consideration that he had just hit the spirit of fear. The brunette moved closer, getting up nearer to his shocked face. "Don't you dare try to pin this on Jack, you sick, heartless bastard," he growled. "You're the spirit of fear, right? Then how is it that not once did you notice the fear that practically seeped out of Jack's very soul? Or did you realize it all along, and you just fed off of it like the monster you are?" Jamie turned back away in disgust.

"Jack was not afraid of me, boy. He knew that I would not harm him on purpose."

"Ha! 'On purpose.' You wouldn't hurt him purposefully, but you still hurt him. Did you not see how reluctant he's been lately? How he has refused your summons?"

Pitch seethed at the thought of being berated by a human child. "Of course I noticed. It was no doubt because of you poisoning his mind."

"No!" Jamie snapped back. "It was because of you! He dreaded going to sleep, because of the fear of getting one of your calls! He dreaded going to you, because he was afraid that you would realize his fears! He dreaded seeing you, because he was afraid he would fall even deeper." His expression softened, as he looked down at his friend.

"I did not sense any of those-"

"Of course you didn't!" He cut the man off, shouting in anger. "Because you were too distracted by your dick to see that Jack had fallen in love with you!"

"What...I...he..." Pitch stumbled for words, his eyes widened in complete shock. Who would have ever thought that Pitch Black, the terrifying Boogeyman, would be scrambling for words because of a human child.

"It killed him to think that you would never feel the same! That's why he stopped going to you! It hurt him too much to know that he was nothing more to you than a fuck-buddy."

"That's not true..." the spirit whispered, almost unheard by Jamie. "I...this wasn't supposed to happen! He was never supposed to get hurt." He looked at Jack's motionless body, and it was then that Jamie could see the truth in his gaze.

Those golden eyes were full to the brim with the sincerest regrets and sorrows. Maybe he does care for Jack after all... "I'll be right back." Jamie rushed into the house to grab something from his room, and when he came back, Pitch was standing closer to the winter spirit, looking like he wanted to touch him but was too afraid to do so. "Hey." He took a small, wrapped object about the size of his palm out of his pocket. "Jack told me to hold onto this for him. Said he was going to give it to you when he finally broke it off." Jamie tossed it over to the spirit who looked at the tiny blue package curiously. "Guess you caught him by surprise, though..." The twenty-year-old dug the toe of his boot into the ground, fidgeting nervously. "So...we don't really have medical supplies here...and I can't exactly take him to a hosp-"

"I will take care of him," Pitch answered immediately, without even thinking.

"Jamie!" The door to the house opened and a little jacket-clad blond came running out. "What's wrong with Jack-Jack? Will he be okay?" He looked down at the unconscious winter spirit, when his brother scooped him up into his arms.

The brunette put on a small smile. "Jack-Jack will be just fine. He just had a little accident, but Mr. Black, here, is going to take care of him...right?"

When they looked over at him, Pitch simply nodded. "I will make sure he comes to visit you, as soon as he's better."

"See? Everything's going to be just fine, Jeremy."

As soon as Jamie put down his little brother, the blond went over to the other man and hugged his leg. "Thank you, Mr. Boogeyman. Make Jack-Jack all better." He smiled up at him, and Pitch could only stare down in shock, somehow managing a small nod.

"Jeremy, it's time for you to go back inside, so Mr. Black can help him, okay?" Jeremy nodded his head, before running back inside. Jamie turned back to Pitch, his face serious once more. "He better come back to us unharmed, Pitch, or I will tell the Guardians everything."

The dark spirit chuckled dryly. "And here I thought you had forgiven me." He pocketed the package and knelt down to gently lift Jack up into his arms, silently apologizing for the look of pain on his pale face.

"You hurt my best friend, and I will never forgive you for that." Jamie started to walk towards the house. "If you can get him to forgive you, though," he nodded towards the spirit in his arms, "I might start to try." The brunette went inside without another word, giving him a wave of his hand without turning around again. Pitch watched him leave and held the teen close to him, leaning down to pick up his staff before disappearing in a flash of shadows.

After laying Jack's unconscious body on the bed, the older spirit couldn't stop himself from gently stroking a few strands of that snowy hair away from his pained expression. With a frown and a sigh, Pitch sat down on the edge of the bed. He didn't know how many minutes had passed, but he suddenly remembered that little package that Jamie had given him.

Pitch pulled out the little blue package, holding it in front of him as if he were afraid to open it. There was a little folded note tied to the top. After taking a deep breath, grey fingers nimbly pulled away at the string that was tied around it and started to unwrap the paper. When he was finished, the spirit was left with a cold necklace in his hand and the small, folded note. Deciding to read the note first, he unfolded it.

Pitch, I'm sure that after all of this, you'll think I'm absolutely insane and stupid. None of this was ever supposed to happen. We were supposed to be in a relationship where we just had sex and that was it. Nothing more. But I was stupid and I couldn't just leave it at that. I fell in love with you, Pitch. I fell for you so hard that I literally feel a pain in my chest every time you send me away.

But I know that this will never work out the way I want. I fell in love with the real Pitch. The one you hide from the world beneath your harsh and uncaring mask. I fell for the you that wants so bad to not care but can't help it. I fell for the you that hides his true feelings from the world out of fear of being hurt again. I fell for the Pitch who only ever relaxed when I was around. I fell for the you who exchanged witty banter with me and put up with my childishness.

I know that you will never return my feelings, but I just want you to know that I can see through your act. Beneath all of that tough exterior, is a man who is capable of caring just as much as anybody else, if not more. Even if it isn't me, I hope that someday you find someone who can crack open your shell and make you truly want to be yourself and show it to the world. But it can't be me. It never was me. And it kills me inside every time I see you to be reminded of what can never be. And that's why I have to break this off. I have no choice. I love you, Kozmotis. Goodbye...

Pitch could only stare down at the paper in his hands. He could see the tear stains dotting it where the winter spirit had clearly been crying as he wrote. He was speechless. Not a single coherent thought could form in his head, he was so shocked. Setting aside the note, the spirit looked down at what had been inside the package.

It was a simply designed locket made of ice. His thumb ran over the frosted exterior that stopped you from seeing through what would otherwise be the clear material, amazed that it didn't melt under the warmth of his skin. Pitch took a deep breath before he opened the locket, but that didn't stop that very breath from catching in his throat at what he saw. Eyes widened when they settled on a familiar picture of a little brown haired girl in a dress, perfectly preserved behind a thin layer of clear ice.

The man couldn't do anything but clasp a hand over his mouth in shock. When he looked at the other half of the locket, he let out another small gasp. Engraved into the frost were the words "Proof that you can care..." Pitch looked up at Jack's unmoving body, unable to stop a single tear from escaping down his grey cheek. What are you doing to me...?

Hope you guys enjoyed it ^^

Review please!

Just because I'm curious...what's your favorite line/passage from this fic? Review it or PM me ;)

Also, I just joined Tumblr! So go look me up on there for sneak peeks and other awesomely random stuff. url is randomtendencies13 . tumblr . com :)

One more thing: the BlackIce Forum could really use some more members! I'm a pretty lenient person and I like to go with the flow. The only real rule is that (FFnet has made this very clear to me as a moderator) all content on the forum must be appropriate for any and all viewers. So no smuttiness or mature things. It's sad, I know, but that's what reading "One Sided" is for lol.

The forum is used for roleplaying (everybody picks one of the characters and controls them in a little story everyone can write together (and don't worry there are multiple stories so you don't have to worry about not getting the character you want)), general discussions about plot bunnies people might have that perhaps you have need opinions on or don't want to write but want somebody else to kind of things, and overall, paying tribute to the beauty we all adore that is BlackIce love.

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