Chapter 10

Happy Valentine's Day

A few months passed and Val was currently busy getting things ready for her holiday, Valentine's Day. Pitch made things difficult. When she would try to sleep he filled her head with nightmares. Though Val didn't mind because that meant she was doing her job right. When she first met him she saw a side no one else did. He had love in him for a person but to this day she doesn't know who that little girl he has love for is. Her best guess is she was someone special to him before he was Pitch Black. Also she noticed he had a fondness for her as well. Val found it amusing how she got the king of Nightmares to fancy her without even using her arrows. To sum it all up Pitch giving her nightmares means he was in denial of his feelings and trying to hide it. But you can't fool a cupid when it comes to love. This confused Val too, Pitch liked her, but she wasn't so sure if she liked him back. She did enjoy seeing him when she would pop into his lair uninvited but he also pissed her off with his rudeness.

As for Jack he was still her best friend and really had become like a brother to her. He was younger but would act like an older brother when it came to Pitch. Not even he knew yet that she would visit Pitch from time to time. She saw Pitch as a good friend, who could be annoying sometimes, at the moment. Cupid gathered her things and headed off to the pole where a meeting was to be held.

"Valentine's day is in a week North. This better be important."

"It is" he cheerfully answered. "you all know Pitch has been around. However it has been long time since he started something. Valentine's day may be a target for him." North said. "So, Val watch out this year."

"Yes sir!" She saluted

"Also, good work everyone. The children believe. But I fear about this too."

"Aw c'mon Pitch wouldn't do the same thing twice." Bunny said. he fiddled with his boomerang.

"You never know" North said.

Val listened as she made Valentine's day cards and ate some candy hearts. Jack Stole some hearts and popped them into his mouth.

"No love for you frosty" Val joked.

"Hey, I'm not a snowman."

"Alright, Cheddar Jack."

"Cheese?"

"I like that. Cheddar Jack frosty. But I'll just go with Cheddar Frosty." Jack laughed. Val could think of some weird nicknames.

"oh you two" Tooth laughed. "What would my nickname be Val?" Val thought for a moment.

"Um let's see you can be Sparkly because you like teeth, North is cookie? Or crazy assassin, Bunny can be hoppy hop, and Sandy is little ball of sass. And to be nice I'll include Pitch, He can be Pitchy or Pitch Perfect."

Everyone went quiet.

"What? Why must you always stand up for him Val" Jack said

"Giving him a nick name is standing up for him?"

"He's our enemy why would you want to include him?" Jack was getting mad. Val always did this. When Pitch was mentioned she would talk about him like some old friend she always used to hang out with. He warned her countless times about pitch but she wasn't listening to him at all.

"Calm down Jack"

"No! If you want to be all buddy buddy with him then why don't you just go to his side?"

"Jack…" Tooth said shocked at what he said, everyone else was watching, North was the first to speak.

"Cupid is Guardian; She would never betray us Jack."

"North is right. I never once betrayed any of you and I never will even if I and Pitch were buddy buddy I would never do anything to any of you"

"She has a point mate." Bunny said.

"look I have work to do. I now Fear can linger in Love so I don't doubt Pitch may try something but I'll be careful this year, Promise." Val gathered her things and left. She had a lot to do before her holiday came and she wasn't going to get set back because Jack didn't like her being nice.

"I just don't like how she seems to stick up for the guy. I'll apologize after she has time to cool off." Jack said to the group. They all understood.

Back at her place she kept busy making sure everything was just right. For the rest of the week she worked nonstop. She was exhausted the night before her big day and passed out on her bed with everything for her holiday scattered around her room. Sandy let some of his dream sand send her into a peaceful sleep. All the while he looked out for Pitch. Cupid needed a good night's sleep if she were to have a good holiday. Many couples would need her to keep the love in the air. Seeing no sign of the Nightmare king sandy left to send the children into dream land. Pitch did in fact leave Cupids dream alone that night.

Pitch passed in his lair. Valentine's Day was tomorrow. He sent out his nightmares for the night giving strict orders to just spread nightmares to the children. He wanted Cupid to be rested for her big day. Being alone in his lair he thought hard. He wasn't an expert in love and didn't care for romantic ideas and gifts but he had planned on getting Val a little something this year. What would the Cupid like? Flowers and chocolates were out of the question. No way would her get those items. How could he leave something for her, not say it's from him, and have her know?

"What has this girl done to you?" A nightmare said. Pitch glared at it

"I thought I told you to go with the others."

"Someone needs to stay by you. You're not yourself" The nightmare walked over to Pitch.

"I am fine"

"Why not just get her to like you and have her join our side? You are the nightmare king she can be your queen"

"How about you shut up before I kill you." Pitch spat.

"So what are you getting her?"

"I don't know yet." He played with some of his black sand. "Go to her. See what she is dreaming, find out what she likes from what is in her room and don't let sandy find you." He ordered. The nightmare didn't argue with him and left to gather information. Pitch had an idea of what he would do and sent his nightmare out mainly to get some more peace and alone time.

The nightmare snuck into cupid house easily. Sandy was nowhere in sight. It watched as cupid dreamed of herself when she was human with a white kitty. She put a blue mouse toy that raddled on top of a plastic tunnel. The cat looked at it then attacked it from inside the tunnel making it pop off the top. She laughed and seemed to be really happy. So she likes cats? The nightmare thought. That should be good enough information right? The nightmare stayed and looked around her room for a minuet knowing Pitch would be mad if they went back to early. It saw Val picture hanging on her wall by her bed. There was a journal on the nightstand. It would be too tricky to steal that she surly would notice. But what if it had information Pitch wanted? The nightmare had a hard time sneaking around the room due to all the mess of valentine's stuff Cupid had laying around. Seeing that the sun was slowly making its way up into the sky the nightmare left with the information it collected.

Pitch was playing around with his ideas when he noticed the nightmares were all coming back from the night. It was morning already. The nightmare he sent out came back to deliver the information.

"Well?" Pitch asked.

"She likes cats" the Nightmare said.

"Cats, that is all?"

"That's what she was dreaming about"

"I should have gone myself, however I can work with that I do have all day" He went back to his work room and began working on his little surprise.

Val woke up feeling really refreshed. She hadn't had a good night sleep like that in a while. She would be thanking sandy later. It was Valentine's Day. She quickly got ready, gathered all the items she would need, and set off. She shot countless people with arrows, Placed bouquets and chocolates around for last minuet shoppers to find. Placed cards into the bags children were carrying around. She made sure they gave out every card they wanted too. Kids could be so forgetful with cards. For some couples she threw rose petals off her cloud to make it rain with roses. And every year there were always the single people she had to deal with. She had to try to keep them happy or find them a last minute date if they were bummed. Then there was always the people she couldn't stand the most, the ones who cheated or broke up with their special someone on Valentine's Day. She could curse their love life if she wanted too but instead she stayed by the side of the ones who had a broken heart. They would not be sad for long. On her journey of spreading love she even saw Jamie. He handed out his cards and seemed to be looking through his bag upset.

"Something wrong?" She asked.

"Hi Cupid. I can't seem to find the card I made for my friend."

"Here you go" She pulled out a card from her jacket and gave it to Jamie.

"Thanks Cupid!" Jamie took it and wrote his message before finding his friend to give it to them.

Val smiled. Her day was going good so far. Soon the sun began to set. This was her signal to finish up. There were always couples that went to watch the sunset. This year went good. And so far Pitch did nothing, not like he could anyway. As the moon came out she stayed out patrolling in case he would ruin her had work now that it was dark. Pitch was nowhere to be found. Maybe he took the night off? Why would he want to deal with love? But it would be so easy for him to spread fear so it didn't make sense and Cupid didn't like that fact. Before she went home she took a few last stops. This year she made valentine cards with a pack of candy hearts for each of the Guardians. She went to one at a time and gave them their cards and candy.

"Candy! Thanks a bunch" North accepted his card and pulled cupid into a tight hug. She said you're welcome and took off to see Tooth.

"Thanks so much Val" Tooth said then she noticed the candy. "I'm going to have fun flossing after eating these" Val giggled at her friend's response and went to visit Bunny. On her way she saw sandy and made a pit stop to give him his card. He thanked her using his dream sand and went back to making dreams. She went to find Bunny and found him experimenting with color for eggs. She took out his card.

"Thanks Val, I never did get a Valentine's day card before"

"You're welcome. Happy Valentine's day Bunny" Jack was her last stop. She found him wondering around and playing with snow.

"Jack!" She hugged him. She hadn't said anything to him in a week and needed to make up for it.

"Val what's up?" He asked giving her a hug back. She took out his card and handed it to him.

"Happy Valentine's day!"

"Thanks" he took it and read it. "Happy Valentine's Day to you too. All finished for the day?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go home and rest up now"

"Don't let me hold you up. You deserve a rest after a busy day. And sorry for a week ago."

"Don't worry about it. It's okay" She gave him a hug then headed towards her home. It started to rain on her way back, Val smiled. She thanked Mother Nature for making it rain after she was finished for the day however she loved the rain so she wouldn't have minded it would just change how she would spread the love for the day. All the couples would be inside watching movies instead of taking strolls through the park. When she got home it was down poring she smiled and twirled in the rain for a bit.

"Did you enjoy your holiday" Pitches voice said in the darkness. Val stopped spinning and looked over to him. His eyes were glowing in the darkness and he was leaning against her house.

"Well, well. What brings you out on my holiday your majesty?" She bowed. It has been a while since she got to mess with him.

"You" He answered. This confused Val for a moment.

"Me?" He gave her no time to think about it. He held her chin up with one hand and pressed their lips together for a kiss. It was a simple sweet kiss in the rain.

"Happy Valentine's day Val" He said then he disappeared into the shadows. Val was stunned. What the hell just happened?

"PITCH!" she yelled. "What the fuck! You're not allowed to do that! You get back here now you jackass!"

He was listening to her from the shadows and laughing to himself. Oh how fun it was to mess with her.

Val went into her house and slammed her door. When she was sure she was out of sight she held her hand to her lips. She may have yelled at him for it but inside she couldn't deny that she liked that kiss. A mew sound snapped her out of her thoughts. Sitting in front of her was a black cat with golden eyes. But it didn't look like a normal can. There was a note attached to its blue collar.

To: Val

Enjoy your personal little Nightmare.

From:

He didn't put his name but she knew it was from Pitch.

"You gave me a Nightmare for Valentine's day?" She said knowing he wasn't there. "You know, you can be really sweet when you want to be Pitchy…Pitchy? Pitchy kitty?" She looked at the Nightmare cat.

"That's it. I'll call you Pitch. And your nickname shall be Pitchy. Pitch kitty." The cat scratched its ear and walked off. Val smiled. This was one of the best if not the best Valentine's Day she ever had.