A/N: So I FINALLY SAW FROZEN ALSDKJF;LSADKGHA;SLDKGHAS;DLKFJASDG;LKDSAHFAS;DLFJA AAAGHHH I totally wanna write a Frozen/ROTG crossover now where Jack and Elsa are best buds and just AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BABIES
Hope you all enjoy the first chapter from Jack's POV - she's fun to write, being the little shit she is :) Also Pitch is awkward and Jack is awkward and this really should all end in angst but probably won't. Probably ;)
Please remember that reviews/constructive criticism are very welcome!
Chapter 3
"Hey, how come you're always playing with that stuff?" Pitch isn't startled by the sudden question, and Jack pouts. She's been trying to scare the Nightmare King, or at least surprise him, but she hasn't had much success. She's fairly certain he finds her attempts amusing, if only because she's heard stories, but he doesn't seem that bad.
"Just an experiment," Pitch replies from his spot on the roof where they are sitting. Well, Pitch is sitting; Jack is balancing on her staff.
"Experiment for what?" Jack asks, craning over to get a better look at what exactly Pitch is doing. "And won't Sandman be mad you took some of his sand?"
"He won't miss it," Pitch dismisses her concerns. "Sanderson is capable of multitasking, but there are millions of children in the world, and he can't account for every single grain of sand."
"It's pretty," Jack comments. She leaps down from her staff, hooking it across her shoulders as she leans over Pitch. "How come it doesn't make shapes when you touch it?" she wonders.
"Because that is not my intent," Pitch replies without looking at her. "And that only happens for Sanderson and chil-" He stops suddenly and stares at Jack with an inscrutable expression.
"What?" Jack asks somewhat defensively, her stomach churning. He is the Bogeyman after all, and who would want his gaze fixed on them indefinitely-
Jack hastily cuts off that train of thought because Bogeyman or not, Pitch is the only one who interacts with her halfway decently, and if it's a choice between being looked at in a way that makes her stomach feel a little funny or being alone again, she'll gladly take the staring. "What?" she asks, this time a little more impatient and rude.
"You worry about the strangest things," Pitch replies with a rather cryptic smile. He stifles a chuckle at the pout Jack gives him. "Here." Pitch holds out his handful of dream sand. "I'd like for you to touch it."
"Touch it?" Jack raises an eyebrow, and Pitch nods. With a wary look, Jack reaches out and pokes the sand. It briefly forms into a fish before it reverts back to its inanimate form.
"Interesting," Pitch murmurs, looking sideways at Jack with that look that makes her want to disappear or punch him.
"What's so interesting about it?"
"Well, for one thing the daft sand likes you, and-"
"What, so you have to be crazy to like me?" Jack jokes. The knowing look on Pitch's face makes her forced grin falter.
"As I was saying, the sand seems to like you - but you've never interacted with Sanderson, correct?"
"Um, not really? I've said 'Hi' a couple times and he doesn't completely ignore me, but we're not best friends." Jack frowns. "But why's it weird the sand likes me?"
Pitch pokes and prods at the inert sand, and it might just be her imagination, but it seems as if the places where he touches the sand become darker momentarily. "You can see how it reacts to me - fitting since we're opposites. The sand let you shape it, and the only people who can do that are the Sandman..." Pitch looks up at Jack, a gleam in his eye. "...and children."
"Hey, I'm over a hundred!" Jack protests. "I'm not-"
"Mentally you are that old," Pitch interrupts. "But physically... Jack, the moon does not just make spirits and abandon them - much as I dislike him, he is better than that."
"So it's just another way I'm messed up huh?" Jack feels so lost, filled with sadness and fear, fear that she'll never fit in, never know what she did to deserve this-
She's broken from her spiraling grief by the feel of a hand wrapped around hers. Jack looks up in surprise at Pitch, who then brings his other arm around and stiffly draws her to him.
Jack can't- she's cold and ice and freezes everything but somehow she's feeling warm, and since when had she felt any kind of temperature change? They stay still a moment before it suddenly hits Jack that this is Pitch, this is the Bogeyman and even if they are sort of friends, it doesn't mean that-
"I.. apologize... What I said obviously hit a nerve," Pitch says, interrupting Jack's inner panic.
"Hey, no, i-it's fine," Jack protests, wriggling out of the stilted hug. They're both still quite stiff, and it makes Jack laugh, that both of them are so awkward. "We- we're good," she says, her cheeks slightly frosted over in a blush. "So!" Her tone is bright and forced. "What, exactly, are we doing with the sand?"