OTP 30 Day Challenge
Day 23: Doing Something Sweet
Setting: Eight years after What Is Your Center?

Some believe the Boogeyman doesn't sleep. They believe that I roam the night all over the world, never resting, never slowing down. They don't seem to realize just how exhausting what I do is. A long time ago, I could go a few days without stopping, doing what I could to spread fear, paranoia, and nightmares. I didn't have other priorities or anyone to remind me I was running myself ragged. When I could keep myself awake no longer, I would return to my quiet, murky lair and become consumed by my own nightmares. My memories. At the end of the night, what did I really gain besides a sense of self-satisfaction?

I grew bored with the typical scare tactics and began what is known in your history textbooks as the Witch Hunts. That's right. The Boogeyman was bored and started a movement that killed hundreds of innocent humans. At that time, I didn't care. I found it amusing they believed such farfetched tales, that their fellow villagers were capable of arts of magic, bewitchment, and curses. All it took was a gentle suggestion that someone was a witch to get them going. After a time, I didn't have to say anything. I only showed up to the hanging and fed from the fear that way.

I never imagined anything remotely positive would come from such a thing. That one positive thing laid in my arms, already asleep. I had taken her a bit harder than usual earlier, and I proudly wore the wounds to show it, some deeper than others. Admittedly, she had worn me down just as much from the exertion; she had just as many bites and scratches as I. She wasn't one to just lie there and take it all. I grinned at her calm, peaceful face. Only I knew that, just hours ago, such a demure-looking woman had pinned me down at one point when I teased her too much.

Despite how drained I was, sleep wouldn't come. It was one of those nights where I couldn't escape my head. My grin faded. I could never let her know what I had done. She had been hanged under the accusation of witchcraft, though that was far from the truth. She only questioned her village's religion. She didn't believe, and eventually her boyfriend had turned her in, stating she had tried to seduce him down the path of sin. That night she had drunk herself numb and slept with the bartender to try to forget it all. Upon hearing the accusation, he said she bewitched him.

I was at her trial. I watched her die and felt nothing for her. I fed from her fear, just as I did for the others. I hadn't expected MiM to revive her and leave her in charge of that day from then on, when the veil between the living and dead blurred to nothing.

Understandably she had been terrified and I couldn't slake my curiosity. And, as callous as I was, I couldn't leave her in the cold, naked, alone, confused, and scared. It had been by my words that she had died to begin with. I wanted to see why she had been revived.

She stirred a bit against my chest and I brushed the hair from her face. She smirked and hummed into my throat before falling still again.

It had been a strange year after I agreed to take her in and teach her what I could. It was a platonic teacher/student relationship for almost the entire twelve months she lived with me. Until the night she had ingested fear she could not handle. Typically, we both entered a sort of high after feeding, and she would confine herself to her quarters. I knew what she was doing behind closed doors, but I was no better. With no other outlet, I'd have to relieve myself in the privacy of my own quarters.

That night, she had a very serious reaction. A hallucination she couldn't wake from. I surprised myself with how much I was scared something would happen to her. It would have been my fault. I stayed by her side for eight hours, muttering things I doubt she remembers to this day to keep her as calm as I could. The only thing I could hear from her, both in her fears and through her voice, was an almost desperate plea to never be left alone again. I hadn't read her memories. I didn't understand at the time why that was her only fear. Instead, I found I could relate. I only really understood why after I had to sift through her mind eight years ago, when Lucifer put the toxins in her body to force her to suicide.

Upon acceptance of my worry, I started to understand why I was terrified she wouldn't pull through. I had grown to love her, in a way. It was a feeling I had thought long dead, after my wife passed away. Hana would follow orders, yes, but wouldn't hesitate to challenge my requests. She met my teasing just as much as I gave it. She accepted what was in my nature. I hadn't expected a previously mortal woman to understand, but she did more than that. She embraced the life as well. She had a knack for scaring people just as I.

I had grown attached to having another being in the lair. It had been so easy to forget the centuries of solitude. I could remember it as the beginning of an attraction, one I had felt for my wife before I started to court her. Now I knew why my heart would race just the slightest at any contact with her skin, or why I felt a shift in mood when she was near. As weak as it made me feel, I took any chance to brush against her soft flesh, just to feel anything at all for the first time in centuries.

She pulled through, and I brushed off the emotions, keeping them locked away. Nothing could come from the attraction. I was a monster, the manifestation of fear and darkness. There was no room in my non-existent soul for love. As much as I avoided starting anything, her dreams began to change. I only knew this due to the content of them. They were sinful thoughts, of the two of us in loving embraces. Some of them, anyway. Others I was taking her hard and fast, while still acting like a lover. I wouldn't let myself believe she really wanted to be taken by me. Not by someone as evil, as ruthless as I.

I could have satisfied her in her dreams, satisfied both of us, and think nothing of it. That was what I should have done. In the beginning, when I first turned, I would have done that without hesitation. And probably worse. Instead I let her have her dreams. They became, literally, a guilty pleasure.

Yet here we were, almost five hundred years later. There had been a time where she had left, a hundred years exactly, but I had been less than a gentle beast then. My sanity slipped, and I did things I do still regret, no matter how many times she has forgiven me since. Now we laid in a dark cottage in the village at the North Pole, having been invited up for the holidays by Clara and her husband. Before Hana had returned into my life, I would have scoffed at the very idea of a warm welcome to the Pole. Now, eight years later, we had more in our lives than we could handle on our own. I did still scoff at the invitation, but I tolerated the retreat. Clara only had good intentions, and I wouldn't put it past her to do something violent if I had refused. Instead, it was easier to accept and enjoy time alone with Hana.

Sleep finally started to come to my restless mind. The lull of the village life outside still went strong, but surprisingly, from being so used to the undergrounds, it wasn't that horrible. No sooner did I drift off into my own subconscious, I heard a quiet voice getting louder until it jerked me awake. "Dad! Daddy, dad, dad!"

"Your son is awake," Hana muttered from my chest, not opening her eyes.

I rolled my tired eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Dad, you promised, remember? You promised we'd go on a nightmare run."

Sudden realization dawned on me when his words held truth. "That isn't until nightfall," I mumbled, falling back into the pillows. "Go back to bed."

"But it's nightfall in Italy. I went to bed hours ago."

I frowned, keeping my eyes closed. How long had I been in my head, watching over the woman still secured in my arms? "Give me a few hours yet."

"But Dad, you promised," he whined, making me look at him. He had such a pathetic look on his ashen face, his bright yellow eyes shining with unshed tears.

"You did promise, Daddy," Hana muttered. Her eyes opened to tired glowing slits as she moved to let me up.

My blood boiled a bit when she called me that, due to very satisfying memories accompanying the endearment. I grunted as my son climbed onto my chest and sat there, his arms crossed over his chest. "Honestly boy, the night isn't going anywhere. Let me sleep a bit more."

"You swore it on your soul."

"News flash kiddo, Daddy has no soul." Hana kicked me under the sheets. "Fine. Let me up and I'll be out in ten minutes." The boy cheered and jumped off, knocking a bit of the wind out of my lungs.

He stood in the doorway, his smile bright once again, the dark circles around his eyes making him look excited. "I'll check in exactly ten minutes."

I put the pillow over my eyes as he closed the door and Hana laughed at me. "Shut up. You slept. I didn't."

"Oh, my poor Oogie," I heard the mock pout in her voice and I threw the pillow at her, making her squeak and laugh.

"Yes, your poor Oogie is sleep deprived. I may actually do something horrible to the children," I said, sarcasm dripping from my words.

She stole the pillow by shoving it under her, frowning. "I thought I wore you down. That is part of this little vacation, isn't it?"

It was true, we had been growing apart intimately due to Drago, and Clara had said she would keep the boy busy most days. It was obvious Hana had told her we had to steal time where we could be alone. "It is, and you did. Just a stubborn day. I can tolerate staying awake for another."

She threw me off guard as she straddled my hips, the strap of her nightdress falling from her shoulder. Her skirt rolled up her thighs. "Don't stay out too long," she purred, rocking her hips, grinding herself into me for a moment, making me very glad I chose to not sleep in pants. And that she had not put her panties back on after we fucked that morning. She bit her lip as I growled, my head going light as she made me hard again. It wasn't helping that her scent was getting stronger. I didn't think that was her original plan, but she seemed to be enjoying it just as much. The moment she felt slick and she moaned I shifted my hips and pressed inside her, filling her up. She gasped and leaned forward and I had to clench my jagged teeth together as she quivered around me. "Mm, you don't have time for this."

I cursed while I pulled out and pressed back in, stretching her farther and making her gasp again and arch her back. I was determined to make her finish before our son came back in to ruin it. "It won't take long tonight." I flipped us, rolling her to her back. I wrapped her legs high around my waist and pinned her wrists above her head with one hand. The other covered her mouth. I angled her just right and began to take her without mercy. She screamed against my hand, and even I had trouble repressing my own cursing. I extended a shadow tendril to the door, quietly shifting the lock just in case Drago became any more impatient. I wouldn't be able to come up with a lie convincing enough for what I was doing to his mother.

After almost five centuries, I could still feel this good inside the same woman. I could still get hard at the sight of her body, no matter what she presented herself to me in. She was a good submissive girl, but if I let her have control, she would take it right away. I'd admit it proudly; I have let her tie me up before. I found her confidence to be sexier than anything. To be able to put the Boogeyman in his place… It was a skill reserved for her. It made my cock quiver as I took her harder and her moans reverberated against my hand. Her hips rolled against me, leaving me hypnotized by the waves her body created.

My grip on her wrists tightened as the telltale tingle took over my limbs, coursing through my body before resting in my mind. She gripped the sheets above her, her legs dug into my sides, her teeth found purchase in my palm. I was having trouble keeping quiet. "Mm, that's it love. I'm coming." I let go of her wrists and pulled her nightgown up just as pressure coursed through my cock, forcing me to spill on her belly, my lips pulled back in a satisfied moan. My hips jerked a few times, and I was suddenly reminded how tired I really was. I groaned and fell to my side, my hand to my eyes. "Why did I promise to take him on a run?"

"You're a masochist," she said, trying to catch her breath. She held the nightgown up and escaped into the bathroom to wash off.

I shrugged and opened the lock once more. That could have been it entirely. I took my pants from off the floor and pulled them on, knowing the boy would not knock upon his return.

"I suppose I should relieve you of your orgasm duties tonight," she said, leaning against the doorframe to the bathroom. She let me see all of her ashen skin before letting the fabric drop again. "I wouldn't want my old man to pass out from overexertion."

I grinned as she leaned on the bed with me, her lips hovering a teasing distance away. "You know I won't back down from a challenge, love."

She arched a brow. "Well then, I expect you to be back here as soon as possible. Leave Drago with Clara. Don't let him come back here. I'll have a surprise for you."

It still made my blood boil that she wanted to seduce me, as if she had to. "I'll be sure to do that. And what should I be doing in preparation?"

"Just imagine your lovely woman naked and writhing under your touch." She put her arms around my neck and I held on to her hips as that exact image came to mind.

"That shouldn't be an issue, pet."

She shook her head and I almost wanted to blow off my son at her sinful smile. "I'm revoking my status as pet tonight. Think you can handle that with no sleep and a night with the boy?"

"Oh good, then all I'll have to do is lie there while you do all the work."

She leaned back and punched me in the arm before getting off the bed entirely. "I will throw your naked, ashen ass in the snow and lock the door."

I arched a brow to her back. I wouldn't give her the courtesy to issue the challenge. Instead I moved to pull my boots on and Drago came back in the room.

"C'mon Dad! Let's go." He tossed my coat to me as I pulled on my other boot.

I took it off my head and tugged my arms through it, feeling the ends merge into shadows to encase my arms. "I'm coming. Don't lose your head."

"Oh, so forget all about me," Hana said. I looked back at her, seeing her playful smile. She bent down as Drago ran to her. "Don't give your dad too much grief. That's my job." She kissed his cheek and sent him out of the room as she stood by me. "Keep him safe."

"Of course. Enjoy your time with Clara. You need the female companionship."

"I know. All this testosterone is getting to me. I feel the need to kill something." She rolled her eyes but smiled. She nodded her head to the doorframe. "Go spend time with your son. You do owe him this."

"I owe you more."

"You'll owe me plenty when you get back and after you sleep. I don't want you falling asleep in the middle of everything again."

I held up a finger. "That was once, I was heavily intoxicated, and it was either pass out or throw up on you. I think I picked the better option." I pulled her into my arms and kissed her while she giggled a bit. "I'll make sure we're both satiated by the time we go home. Trust me on that," I growled, still not completely satisfied.

"I'll hold you to that. Or I'll hold you to a wall."

She always knew just how to give me material to imagine while we were apart. Naughty thing.

"Daddy!"

I rolled my eyes and left her on her own. "What-y." I grinned at his attempt to look extremely pissed off that I was intentionally dragging my ass. He huffed, a lock of his shaggy black hair flying back into place. "What, I'm not allowed to say goodbye to your mother?"

He crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue. "I've been waiting to go forever!" The way he said it, I would have thought I was delaying a departure to Disney. I had to smirk at his enthusiasm for spreading nightmares.

I chuckled. "You are my son alright. No doubt about that. Now, let's go distribute our nightmares." My sleep could wait. I wanted to see just how creative Drago could be. I looked back as he mounted Bellini and I met Hana's grin as she leaned in the doorway and winked, watching us depart. I had known I would be a good father. I had known what to do up until this point, although for a girl. Hana hadn't known anything at all about infants, and yet she had picked up everything so quickly, turning her into a mother I never imagined her to be. The role suited her. I was still grateful to MiM for the one good gift he had ever provided for me. The Nightmare King finally had a queen, and he had his Nightmare Prince. My kingdom was complete. I had obtained what I wanted all along. I wasn't alone. Onyx appeared beneath me, bucking a bit as I opened the Void. We darted forward, heading in the direction of Italy.

When MiM gave Hana her cycles back, he had indirectly given me the greatest gift of all. Another chance. I was still able to be terror, fear incarnate, the source of children's nightmares and adults' night terrors. I would still fight on the side of the shadows, but I wouldn't trade my gift for anything. I still loved my original family. But my wife had long since passed on, and my daughter still hated me. Having this made me start to appreciate the remaining human side of myself.

For the first time in awhile, I'd stay out as long as it took to make sure Drago could be the next fear incarnate. It was one thing worth sacrificing my dreams for.