Lots of people reading already! Thanks, and thanks for the review. I used to tell my sister stories but I didn't think of writing them down before. Anyway, I hope you like the next part. ~Jack

CHAPTER TWO: Things Were Going So Well

"What do you mean?" I asked. Maybe I was having a slow moment. I don't know.

"You," Pitch said, sounding like he was being made to eat spinach, "you were always this way. I know what the teeth reminded you of. You were already a Guardian."

"Well..."

"You know what that means? I was always meant to be the Boogeyman. Someone people hate and fear. Only now they don't even do that. They ignore me or laugh at me. Who must I have been before, to end up like this?"

He had a point. I have to admit, I was blindsided. I was so sure that his old memories would make Pitch want to have friends again that I hadn't paused to consider that his past might be as bleak as his present.

I let the covers fall and leaned back against the bed. "But... you don't know that," I persisted, but I sounded weak even to myself. I reached up to turn the lamp on, hoping some light would help the situation, but nothing happened when I pushed the switch. I looked up and saw that the bulb was broken. Tiny glass shards littered the bedside table, some ground almost into powder, with tiny hoofprints trailing through the mess.

"Come out from under there, Pitch," I said.

"No. Go away."

I sighed. It seemed force was necessary. I moved quickly, lifting the edge of the blankets and making my grab, succeeding in getting hold of an ankle this time and dragging him out before he could land a kick to my hand with his other foot.

"Let me go!" he shrieked with that cringe-worthy, throat-tearing timber that only a child mid-tantrum can produce.

"I'm just trying to help!" I protested, getting annoyed now.

"You don't want to help me! You all want to destroy me! I know!"

He really sounded like a little kid now. It made me sad to be misunderstood—but I figured he might very well feel the same way.

"That's not true." I tried to pull him to the middle of the room so he couldn't get hold of the bed and pull himself back under.

He started kicking and clawing at me, even biting one of my wrists at one point. Well, I let him go, but I grabbed my staff and pulled up a wave of ice between him and the bed, cold stalagmites or upside-down icicles, whichever you prefer, effectively barring his way.

"No!" he exclaimed, sounding hysterical. He turned toward the closet, but I sent snow flurrying around him until it hardened into a cylinder of ice. "Let me go! Let me go!"

"Calm down," I said, trying to sound light-hearted. "How am I supposed to help you if you keep running back to the darkness. Don't you know that's where the nightmares will find you?"

He clawed at the ice walls with his nails, shadowed eyes full of hate. "At least I know they're there. Not waiting and wondering." He threw himself against the ice, but it held.

"Tell you what. I'm going to go ask Tooth for your teeth. I'll bring them back here, and then we can talk about this."

"NO!" I thought he sounded hysterical before; this was ten times the panic. "You can't tell anyone you're coming here! They'll come back to finish me off! Look at me! I'm nothing! I'm nothing..." He choked on it the second time.

I felt really bad, but I was sure he couldn't be more wrong. "You don't know Tooth like I do. She's really nice. Anyway, maybe I can get your teeth without having to tell her about it. We'll see. Just let me take care of it."

"I don't trust you! You'll ruin everything."

"The way I see it, you don't have much to lose." I started to turn away, still feeling guilty. He did look pretty pathetic and I hate to see any kid that upset, even if he was a super evil adult villain just a little while ago. Adult evil super villain. Villain super-evil adult. Sorry, I had to try those out. I like my original order.

"Jack."

I stopped and looked back.

He was standing with one hand against the ice. After a moment, he sat on the floor, hand trailing down the curved wall. "I'm cold," he said.

That issue hadn't occurred to me either. I'm really not with it today... I walked back toward him, looked at him, looked at the bed. There was barely room in his little prison for him to sit down. If I threw a blanket in, it might suffocate him. I sighed and pulled my hoodie off over my head. "No crying while I'm gone," I said firmly. "I don't want you getting snot on my sweatshirt."

"Shut up."

I managed not to laugh when it landed on his head. He put it on and it was too big. He left the sleeves hanging past his hands and pulled his knees up to his chest underneath the main section of the hoodie. The hood concealed all but his stubborn chin. I again managed not to laugh.

"I'll be back soon. Everything will be all right—I promise."

"No, it won't," he said. But he sounded resigned now, not hysterical.

I shook my head and walked out of the little room, barely ducking in time under the low doorway. If he noticed, he managed not to laugh.

Eren speculates that while I was gone, Pitch probably got very bored, worried a lot, called me names, tried to escape and eventually snuggled down in my hoodie, taking comfort in its warmth and good smell. Apparently I smell like a winter night just before a snowfall, with a hint of evergreen. I do like flying through the woods, and it does smell nice and fresh, so that's probably why.

Whatever Pitch found to do while I was gone, I went straight to Tooth's headquarters. The tooth business is, of course, a twenty-four/seven job. About four kids are born every second. That right there is insane. Every kid normally loses twenty teeth during his childhood. So... If we can assume that most of those kids survive long enough to lose their teeth (and if I'm calculating this correctly), that means Tooth and her fairies have to collect teeth every minute of every hour of every day. I participated in collecting just one night, and I thought I was doing really well... When you look at the numbers it sure clears things up a lot.

Needless to say, the place was busy as usual. For some reason though, I wasn't able to just slip in unnoticed. The lines of fairies started humming right away as I approached, and before long Tooth herself came out to meet me.

"Jack," she called, and as my eyes met hers, her gaze shifted down for a split second and then she looked back up at me, her happy grin turning into a sheepish, blushing smile instead. "Uh... Jack... where's your... uh..."

I realized she was wondering what I'd done with my hoodie. "Oh, that. I, uh... I loaned it to a kid because I kind of... made him too cold."

Her embarrassment melted away in what I believe is called a "squee." (Eren says that's right. He says boys almost never squee. Girls do it a lot. Whatever.) "Aww, that is so sweet," she gushed, meeting me in the air. "If you need something to wear in the meantime, we can figure something out... Oh! I know—we'll make a jacket for you to take back to the kid."

"Um, sure," I said, deciding that giving her something distracting to do couldn't hurt.

"Great! I'll put it on the itinerary. So... just passing by?"

She was looking at me kind of funny, but not suspiciously. More like she wanted to ask something else and was holding back.

"Do you want to look at my teeth?" I asked.

"What? Well... if you're offering."

And then she was pulling my mouth open, peering inside and babbling about how white my teeth were. I know, it's weird, but you learn to find it endearing.

"Sho," I said, mouth still propped open, "I wuzh wonduh-ing..."

"Oh, sorry," she said, letting go of my face with a giggle. "What were you saying?"

I thought quickly, and it's sad how easily I decided to resort to trickery instead of trusting my friend not to freak out on me. "That kid I mentioned... there's something important he needs to remember."

"And you want his teeth!" she surmised immediately. "I'll get them for you. What's his name?"

This was going to be tricky. "Oh, are your teeth catalogued alphabetically?"

"Yes, but by age first. We don't get much call for the memory of anyone over say, a hundred and ten, so it makes it much easier to find the current ones that way."

"Oh, I see."

"So, how old is he?"

"I'm not sure exactly," I hedged, still technically not lying.

"Well, you know, it's likely that a fairy has already noticed his tooth case trying to get some attention. That happens when you need a memory badly."

I knew that wouldn't be true of Pitch's tooth case because he didn't want to remember. "I don't think he wants to remember until I get back," I said quickly, starting to get proud of the cleverness of my half-truths. "I told him I'd bring it back, so... he's waiting for me."

"Ah. Well, next time you can leave it to us, but I think it's really, really nice that you want to help him." She was practically skipping along in the air, dragging me by one hand.

"Tooth, can I ask you something?" I said, planning the conversation out carefully as I went.

"Sure." She sounded happy to answer whatever I might care to ask.

"How old is Bunnymund?"

Tooth laughed. "I don't know. A couple of thousand years would be my guess." She glanced at me shyly. "I'm older than him. Can you believe it?"

"You sure don't look it," I said, flashing my teeth at her. What? It was for a good cause.

She seemed happy with my answer. "I'm even older than North!" she confided. "I'm not sure about Sandy. I never asked, and it's hard to talk about things like that with him. What with his... unique communication."

"Heh, I know what you mean." I tried to sound casual as I asked, "What about Pitch Black? How old is he?"

As I feared, her carefree expression turned solemn. "I don't know," she said. "He might be as old as me... he might not."

I decided to try a mischievous tone. "Did you ever take a look at his baby teeth? I bet they were all pointy like vampire fangs!"

"Jack!" She half giggled, but her eyes still seemed guarded. "You know, I... never really thought about his teeth. I don't really like to think about it, actually."

I couldn't help being disappointed. I couldn't really push the topic any further without getting her suspicious. "Well, you're really busy," I said. "Especially if you meant it about making that jacket. I think I can find the teeth I need on my own."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I don't want to interrupt the flow of things. Just have someone find me when the jacket is done, OK?"

She agreed. "What size should we make it?"

"Um... about half my size, I guess."

She looked me over critically and then her blush started all over again. "O-OK," she stuttered. "I'll see you later, then."

"Yup." I grinned as I headed toward the tooth catalogue. Then I remembered Pitch in my hoodie and laughed out loud.

I went back to a section that might as well have been labelled "Old As the Hills" and began my search. The one good thing about having to start so far back was that the population of the world was much smaller then. Also, the fairies had little markers on the shelf for quick recognition: First name initial (and last, if applicable), male or female, country of origin. I hurried from shelf to shelf, quickly working my way along, confident that I would be back in the Boogeyman's lair in no time. Thanks to my clever subterfuge. Things were going so well.

I'd better leave off there—this chapter is getting long. I didn't think it would take this long to tell what happened! xp I'm planning to go back again tonight if I'm not too tired. So I want to finish typing up what's already happened before more stuff happens. Again, feel free to question or comment! ~Jack