Snakebite.

Ch. 21

Pairing: Naga!Pitch/Tooth (Cavity)

Genre: Humor, romance.

Rating: T (for swearing and minor sexual content)

~S~

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Evening saw the odd pair once again cooped up in the library, though this time, there was a slight lack of conversation. Though really, with what they were doing, words would just make it that much more awkward. Or maybe it could fix the awkwardness? Neither felt like testing any theories.

Another small lock of black hair fell to the floor, the snip of scissors the only real noise in the room. Delicate hands ran through the steadily shortening black tresses, the Boogeyman having to use every fiber of his being to not just start shuddering at the soft touch on his scalp. He sighed, automatically shutting his eyes as Tooth's hand passed over his bangs to pull them back.

"Hey Pitch?" She inquired.

"Hm…"

"Do you…do you think I should tell the others?" Tooth asked, "I mean, I'm torn. A part of me wants to tell them about you for the sake of them not finding out on accident and doing something stupid, but another part of me is…well…"

"Scared?"

"Yeah…" Tooth sighed, snipping a bit more off the ends, "I guess I'm confused."

"Way I see it, it's more up to you than it is to me." Pitch said with a shrug.

"No it's not! This is as much your choice as mine."

"Not necessarily." Pitch said, "This is your home, and they're your friends. I'm just along for the ride."

"No you're not. I had…" blackmailed you, went unsaid, but it was understood. Making a frustrated noise, Tooth set her scissors aside and picked up a comb from the pile of hair tools beside her.

Eyes blinking open – and quite glad his view was no longer obscured by those ridiculous bangs – Pitch looked over at Tooth from the corner of his eye.

"It does not matter how things happened," he said with a shrug, "It happened, we can't change that."

"I guess…" Tooth said uncertainly, running the comb through his hair.

"Why ask now of all times?" Pitch inquired, curious, "It's a bit late to be reconsidering things."

Good question. Why was she asking now? She should have asked herself these things the moment she considered keeping Pitch with her over the summer. The Guardians were all very familiar with one another, and had a tendency to drop by without a word. And it's not like she had a doorbell. She enjoyed the familiarity to a degree, but it just seemed rude at times for a bunch of boys to barge into an all-ladies palace. It was a real miracle that none of them have dropped by suddenly, otherwise she was sure at least one of them would have found Pitch.

Jack's reaction to Pitch had been…surprising at best. Though at the same time, Tooth wasn't all that shocked. Jack has very little history with Pitch, while she and the others had spent the majority of their lives fighting Pitch. Add to that, Jack understood Pitch to a degree. He knew what it was like to be ignored, cast aside, and just being invisible to all – including other spirits. Pitch's solitude was greater though, far longer than Jack's. He was even less than a ghost to humans, and even more of a monster to other spirits.

Also, she highly suspected Jack had a suspicion about Pitch being with her. Baby-Tooth's reaction to her when she told her of his finding out had been suspicious at best. She wondered if the Mini-Fairy had been dropping hints to Jack once her 'time out' had finished. Vidya had only sighed, shaking her head before asking if Pitch was alright.

It had been an overall strange last few days. But still, Jack's words had struck a chord in her. Perhaps that was why she was asking Pitch of his opinion now…

She shrugged, "I just…Jack said that it would probably best-"

"Oh, Frost," Pitch groused, rolling his eyes, "That's what has you so worked up? Because Frost said it 'would be best'?"

"Hey, he's a smart guy," Tooth defended, "But in a sense, yes, he's why I'm thinking about it. I'd rather they know now then find out later on accident, and possibly hurt you, if not worse."

"While your concern touches me, I can take care of myself." Pitch said.

"Pitch…" Tooth said seriously, catching his attention, "Quit the macho act, you know as well as I do that you wouldn't stand a chance against Sandy, let alone two other Guardians."

Pitch quirked a brow, "You think Frost would not join in?"

"I really doubt it," Tooth said, "He's not the type to just join in a beating unless he has a damn good reason."

Pitch hummed thoughtfully, before Tooth set her comb aside and brushed some loose hair off of Pitch's covered shoulders.

"There, all done." She said, taking off the short cape around his neck. She handed him a mirror.

Looking over his reflection, Pitch blinked in mild surprise at how well she had cut his hair. There were some subtle differences – he still had a few loose locks here and there, giving him a more roguish look, and the spikes were held up a bit higher on his head; almost like her own crest…

"…you think you're hilarious, don't you?" he deadpanned.

Tooth only gave a naughty, yet innocent smile.

Pitch rolled his eyes, dusting off any stray hairs from his neck and shoulders, "Thank you, I suppose."

"No problem!" Tooth chirped, grinning widely.

Pitch quirked a brow at her, not quite understanding why she was so happy all the sudden. But he didn't dwell on it for too long. Women were strange at times…

But Tooth continued to smile at the Boogeyman, setting Pitch on edge.

"…yes?" he urged.

"Hm? Oh! Sorry, nothing, just zoning out." Tooth said, turning away with flustered cheeks.

Pitch shook his head. Women…

A sudden knock at the door caught their attention, along with a high pitched chirp. Tooth quickly flitted over and opened the door, revealing a slightly frantic Baby-Tooth and Vidya.

"What is it Baby-Tooth?" Tooth asked.

"We're getting swamped out there, Tooth! Teeth are falling out all over the place!" Baby-Tooth exclaimed, waving her arms.

"What? O-okay, I'm on my way!" Tooth turned to Pitch with an apologetic look, "I'm real sorry Pitch, but duty calls. I'll be back later!"

Without awaiting a response, Tooth flitted out the door with Baby-Tooth, while Vidya stayed behind in the doorway. The spectacled fairy rolled her eyes, flying in and shutting the door with a soft click behind her.

"Dare I ask?" Pitch inquired. Vidya shrugged, taking up her notepad and pencil.

"It's a busy week I suppose. Teeth are dropping left and right." She wrote.

"Ah…" Pitch nodded, "Well, I'm bored now. Care for a game of chess?"

"You have to ask?" Vidya smirked, "I'm going to beat you this time!"

"You can try." Pitch mocked, slithering over to their chess board.

Vidya rolled her eyes, before she settled on her side of the board – they seemed to have wordlessly established that Pitch would always get the black pieces. No arguments. That was his team damn it.

Ten minutes into their game found Vidya wanting to rip her feathers out. She was losing. Again. And while Pitch was smug about it, easily taking out half her pawns and most of her key pieces, he seemed to notice she didn't seem all that into the game. She was playing, but she wasn't acting as strategic as she usually was. Her moves were too quick, thoughtless even. At first Pitch thought she was just using a new strategy to confuse him. But judging by the slightly hazy look in her eyes, and how she seemed to be staring off between turns, he was sure her focus was elsewhere.

"Something on your mind?" he finally asked, becoming both curious and annoyed that his chess partner was not completely in the game.

Vidya startled, blinking wide eyes hazily. Her wings twitched before she reached for her pencil and paper.

"No, why?" she asked.

"You are distracted." Pitch deadpanned.

Vidya sighed, tapping tiny fingers against her pencil. She seemed to ponder something briefly, before she once again took up the writing tool much too big for her, and began writing.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked.

"You just did," Pitch said, receiving a sharp glare. He chuckled, "Go ahead."

Rolling her eyes, Vidya flipped to a new page and started writing. Pitch could not see what she was scribbling onto her paper, but he noticed she was crossing out words just as quickly as she wrote them. She seemed conflicted, unsure. Normally this would amuse him, but oddly, it set him on edge. With all that's happened between him and the residents of Tooth Palace, he honestly wasn't sure if he wanted to hear what she had to ask. Chances are it was only going to end up with him being bitten in the tail. Again.

Finally stopping, Vidya tore out the paper and held it up to Pitch. He leaned down to read the small script, eyes narrowing at the various crossed out words and sentences.

"What do you think about Tooth?" she asked. Pitch blinked.

"…what do I think of her?" he asked. Vidya nodded.

He frowned, "I don't understand…"

More scribbling, "I mean, what do you think of her?"

"…she's alright I suppose," Pitch started uncertainly, "Disgustingly considerate, good cook I suppose. She's a fairy queen, though I'm not too privy to her origins, and-"

"No, no, no!" Vidya cut in, "I mean, what do you think of her as a WOMAN?"

It was like someone had dropped an anvil on his head with her words. Written as they were, they could not have sounded more alarms in his head than if she screamed them in his ear. What did he like about her as a woman? What?!

"You're joking," he said, "Please tell me you're joking?"

The Mini-Fairy shook her head, "Just tell me."

"Why do you want to know?!" Pitch would later cringe at how high his voice was becoming.

"Because I care about her and you!" Vidya argued.

"What does that have to do with anything?!"

"Everything!"

"You-?!" Pitch groaned, scrubbing a hand over his face, "What is this about? Where did this even come from?! Why ask me something so vile?!"

Vidya sighed, quite fed up with Pitch's drama. She wasted no time in writing various messages on her notepad.

"Look, I know I kind of sprung that up on you in a rather…uncouth manner," she wrote, "But I'm being serious. And I want an answer."

"Why? Why would I have to answer such a question? What could you possibly gain by asking me something so personal?!" Pitch snapped.

A pause.

More writing.

"A daddy perhaps?"

CRASH!

And Pitch was out the door – well, more knocked it down – faster than someone of his size should be capable of. Vidya blinked, looking at the torn down door. She'd only been joking, but perhaps it was a bit too much for him…

'Great…' she thought, blowing a loose feather out of her face.

Well, at least now she could tell people she had scared the Boogeyman into nearly knocking down walls…

She paused as a high buzzing caught her attention, and she looked up to see Baby-Tooth peeking in through the door with a quirked brow. Seeing her sister, she crossed her arms and gave her a pointed look.

"Care to explain why Pitch nearly mowed down myself and a few other fairies?" she asked, "The guy looked like he was going to puke!"

Vidya shrugged meekly, adjusting her glasses, "I may have said something stupid, if not tactless."

Baby-Tooth blinked dumbly, before she suddenly became curious and flew over to her sister.

"You said something that made him knock down a door and flee across the palace like the sun itself was out to get him?" she asked, before grinning widely, "Tell me! Tell me! What did you say?!"

Vidya bit her lip, discreetly pushing her notepad behind her with her foot.

"Uh…well I first asked him what he thought about mom," She started, causing Baby-Tooth to cock her head curiously, "Then he asked why I wanted to know, and I cracked a very tactless joke…"

"Which was…?" Baby-Tooth urged.

Vidya sighed, annoyed. Well, if it got Pitch to run away screaming like a girl, maybe it could deter Baby-Tooth.

She handed her sister the slip of paper with her last words to Pitch. Baby-Tooth looked down at it, before her eyes nearly bugged out of her head and her jaw dropped to the tabletop.

"You SAID this to him?!" she exclaimed, her grin so wide, Vidya feared she would split her face in half.

"Okay, that was supposed to scare you off, but it seems to have had the opposite effect." Vidya sighed.

"Are you kidding?! This is great! I needed to find some way to get back at the jackass for threatening to eat me!"

"He wasn't even going to eat you! He was bluffing!"

"I don't care, this is gold!"

Vidya stared with narrowed eyes at her sister for a brief amount of seconds. And before Baby-Tooth could react, Vidya grabbed the paper back and tore it into tiny, irreparable pieces. Baby-Tooth stared at her younger sister in disbelief.

"What was THAT for?!" she snapped.

"You're missing the point!"

"What point?!"

"He RAN! I asked him and showed him that stupid joke, and he RAN!"

"So?!"

"SO!" Vidya's wings vibrated in agitation, "He's SCARED!"

"…again, so?" Baby-Tooth urged.

Vidya groaned, palming her face. She fixed her older sister an unimpressed look before explaining.

"Why would he run? It's because he cares about what we think!" she said, "And he cares, because he cares about Tooth! If he didn't, he would have disregarded my stunt and probably even make some snide remark about me having parental issues!"

"…wait, do you have parental is-"

"BABY-TOOTH!" The named fairy shut her mouth, holding her hands up. Vidya slowly calmed, her feathers settling.

"Look, the point is, is that I asked him because I think something could happen between them!" she said, "But I couldn't prove anything until I gauged his reaction. And I did! And we got positive results!"

"He would not have freaked out if those words meant anything to him, and he would not have bust down the door in a frenzy if he didn't feel anything for Tooth! If anything, if he felt nothing for her, he would have made fun of me, not decimate a door. Tooth is easy to gauge, you've seen how she's been. But this! This proves something can happen!"

Blinking owlishly, Baby-Tooth slowly shook her head at her sister. What the actual hell was going on in her bookworm sister's head? Where was all this crap coming from? It seemed to fall right out of Vidya's mouth, but Baby-Tooth was certain it was coming from somewhere else. It had to be.

"…you got into the 'special' nectar again, didn't you?"

Vidya wanted to scream. She wanted to scream and shake and maim Baby-Tooth right now. She wasn't seeing the whole picture, all the good this could do for them, as well as Pitch and Tooth.

"Baby-Tooth…" she groused, "You cannot be oblivious to the looks she is giving him, or how she acts around him. Please TELL ME you're not oblivious to it?"

Baby-Tooth pouted. Of course she knew! But she didn't think anything of it. Chances are Tooth just had a crush on Pitch or something. She liked him for his scales, he was good looking, he was a bad boy – there had to be something there other than that cursed 'L' word!

"…you don't want to believe it." Vidya said in realization.

"Well of course not! After all he did? Why would I want him anywhere near Tooth, let alone in a romantic sense?!" Baby-Tooth snapped.

"That was a whole year ago! You're so damn stubborn, why can't you just forgive and forget? This isn't even about you!"

"Because I don't like him!"

"…is this about Jack?" Vidya suddenly asked, completely serious.

Baby-Tooth froze, eyes wide while Vidya crossed her arms.

"I thought so," she said, "Baby-Tooth, mom told us that her crush on Jack was just that! A crush, nothing but an infatuation with his teeth! We all could see that, even before she admitted she had no romantic feelings for him."

Baby-Tooth said nothing, only glared at the floor stubbornly. Vidya sighed.

"Were you really hoping so hard for them to get together?" she asked.

"…maybe." Baby-Tooth muttered.

Vidya sighed again, running a tiny hand through her crest.

"Baby-Tooth…I know you like Jack – a lot," she said, "But he's not for Tooth."

"And you think tall, dark, and gloomy is?" Baby-Tooth snapped.

To her surprise, Vidya shrugged, "I don't know. I just know no couple is perfect. It's not like those romance novels I read, stuff happens all the time between couples. But I know Tooth likes him, and now I can be certain he likes her back. He just doesn't want to acknowledge it."

"But he's still-!"

"Baby-Tooth…" Vidya cut in seriously, "When was the last time you saw Tooth so happy?"

Baby-Tooth paused, as if considering. Tooth had been chipper and bursting with energy all week, if not the majority of the time Pitch was with them. Anyone else would say she was just being Tooth, but she and her fairies knew better. Tooth was virtually walking on air now, grinning ear to ear, and even shirking up her work. She never messes up during work. Which meant her mind was on something else – or rather, someone else. She was daydreaming, staring off and towards her library, as if longing. You would have to be either blind or dead to not notice, and Baby-Tooth could not completely deny who it was her queen was thinking about.

"…it's been a while."

"You mean not since she became a Guardian," Vidya corrected, "And even that was short-lived as she got wrapped up in her work. She even stopped seeing the kids as the world got bigger and she got busier. She just didn't notice until Jack came along."

"And now she's back on cloud nine…because of a fricken snake."

"Because of a GUY," Vidya emphasized, "And she's getting worried."

"About what?" Baby-Tooth asked.

"Summer is almost over," Vidya said seriously, "Their deal stated he was to stay with her until summer was over. It ends in only two weeks, and there has been little progress between them. She's too scared to admit anything, and he's so scared of his own feelings he's in denial!"

Baby-Tooth sighed. But her sister was right, she could not deny that. Both Pitch and Tooth were a mess, but they needed to confront one another somehow. Even if it didn't end in a relationship, it would be best if they at least got everything off their chests so there were no regrets.

It was a mess. This whole thing was an emotional train-wreck. Baby-Tooth could not understand why Tooth could be so happy and confused all at once. If it were her, she was sure the confusion would outweigh any other feelings she may have. But she wasn't the one in love…

"…what do we do?" she finally asked.

Vidya shrugged, uncertain, "I don't know…I really don't know…"

~s~S~s~

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in…

…forget it, just breathe overall!

Pitch groaned, burying his head in his hands. Currently, the serpentine Boogeyman was tucked away in an alcove in the deeper part of the library. Too far in for any Mini-Fairy to wander, he was thankfully (or perhaps unthankfully) alone for the time being.

It was amazing really, he was almost impressed – three panic attacks in under a month. He wanted to laugh.

'I wonder if Frost would be willing to kill me if he stops by…' he thought.

Sighing, he curled up further into the alcove, his coils nearly bunched up in a confusing array and blocking his torso from outside view. He must look pathetic, he thought. Hiding like a mouse in a hole, how degrading…

'Not as if you can't fall any further, why not do this?' he thought to himself.

And really, why not just jump off a cliff too while he's at it? Currently his brain wasn't exactly in the best working order, but the haze of confusion and swirling emotions would clear up in a few minutes at best. He just needed to calm the hell down!

'A difficult feat, all things considered…'

He could not believe Vidya had said – wrote – that to him! What had she been thinking? Was it some kind of joke? If it was, it was a cruel and very unusual one. And not in any kind of humor he could appreciate.

But at the same time, another part of him had contemplated what she wrote, and he openly snarled. He cursed the disgusting, beating organ in his breast. He cursed the damn Mini-Fairy. He cursed Tooth! He cursed the whole damn world and the entire concept of human emotions!

"We are not human, but we have human nature…" he recalled his own words he said to Tooth.

Human nature…human nature was to be greedy. Human nature was to be selfish. Human nature – human emotion – was to find that special someone to share that greed with. It was a matter of balance, of finding that someone who you would never steal from, not cheat off of, and never hurt…

'But I'm not meant for such things…!'

Says who? The Guardians? The Moon?

'Everyone! She even said so herself!'

That was before she knew though…

'It doesn't matter! I…I'm Pitch Black, the Boogeyman, I don't have these disgusting feelings!'

Then what is it then? What is that thunderous beating in your chest whenever she is near? What is this heat that rushes up from your gut and into your throat whenever she so much as looks at you? What is this strange, wonderful, terrifying feeling in your heart?

'I have no heart…'

"But you do have a heart!"

Pitch startled, paling at the sound of that boy's voice. He made a pathetic, animal-like sound in his throat, burying his face in his hands.

'I've never loved before…'

But you have.

'That was different…it wasn't as frightening.'

…then maybe it's time to conquer your fear.

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