Chapter 22

Pitch is definitely not counting down the days and time before he would see Jack again, most assuredly not. The absolute glee he feels upon (finally!) feeling her cold presence is just natural.

"Jack," he greets, with a large smile (for him) that on anyone else would look more like a grimace. "You're back."

"Yep," she chirps, a glint to her eye that would make other (lesser) beings fear for their lives, or at least continued sanity. "Was gonna be gone longer but I ran into Hallows and he had some interesting things to say."

"More warnings of disembowelment?" Pitch drawls with a raised eyebrow, recalling the last time Jack had spoken of the Halloween spirit.

"Oh, much worse," Jack snorts. "Apparently there's gossip going around about us."

"Oh?" Pitch wonders if he should be worried. "Specifically regarding us, or related to us?"

"About us," Jack confirms. "Apparently Mother Nature gave me to you as a peace offering between you and the Guardians."

"She what," Pitch asks flatly.

"That's what's being said," Jack snickers. "Yetis are horrible gossips, who knew?"

"It's insulting, is what it is," Pitch fumes. As if Jack was something to be bartered away, as if Se- Mother Nature would be so cruel with one of the spirits under her own jurisdiction, trading them to someone with a reputation like his.

"Oh you'll love this next bit then." Pitch looks over to Jack, not quite sure what she means in that sort of tone. There's something in there he can't quite place.

"Do tell," he prompts, hands clasping behind his back as he tilts his head.

"So, according to Hallows, I was given to you, right? And since you're the Nightmare King, I'm..." The end of her sentence trails off into a mumble that even Pitch with his experience in listening to small noises can't quite parse.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

Jack heaves a sigh. "I said they think we're together. Like, together together."

"...What?" Pitch can not have heard her correctly.

"You heard me." Jack crosses her arm, looking distinctly unimpressed. "The question is what we do about it."

"Do?" Pitch echoes. He feels frozen in place, his stomach both warm and hot at the same time.

"Yeah. I know you like me, but I don't know if you know that yet," Jack continues, continuing to absolutely blow Pitch's mind with every word out of her mouth. "I mean, it took me a while to figure out I like liked you, but I didn't really have the… experience? I guess? To realize that that's what I was feeling. Because we're friends, obviously, so of course I like you because we're friends, but sometimes it's hard to figure out whether you like someone as a friend or a sweetheart because they can feel so much alike, you know?" She rambles nervously, because Jack is nervous, Pitch can feel that twilight area right between anxiety and true fear.

But he doesn't know what to say right now, in this moment, he never even entertained the possibility that she… Maybe if he had had more time to mull it over but he doesn't do well with emotions, not ones that aren't borne of fear or anger, much less his own feelings.

"You knew? Know?" is all he can bring himself to say.

"Yeah, of course," Jack mumbles, cheeks a deep lavender edging toward periwinkle. "Didn't take too long to figure out after, you kept staring and it reminded me of…" She shuffles her feet around, kicking at the ground absentmindedly. "Of my mom. How she'd look at my dad like she couldn't bear to lose him. 's how I knew."

"And you… you feel the same?" Pitch can't help the longing in his voice. "You l-" He can't bring himself to actually say it aloud, his tongue suddenly heavy as boulders in his mouth.

"Yes, you idiot," Jack says with a chuckle, grabbing at his sleeve and tugging his hand into her's again. "I love you. You can be an absolute menace, but I love you."

"I l-" Pitch chokes on the words a little before trying to spit them out again. "Jack, I -"

"Like I said, you're a bit of an emotionally constipated idiot." The soft smile on her face mitigates any sting the words might have held. "You don't have to say it for me to know."

"But I want to," Pitch grumbles. "I don't want you to feel beholden, or feel like it's one sided-"

Jack laughs loudly, a clear and bright sound. "Didn't I just tell you that it's not one sided? As for beholden, can you think of anyone or anything that can make me do something I don't want to do?"

She's not wrong. The last person who made Jack do something she didn't want to got punched. Also Pitch threatened to kill him. It's the little things.

"Besides, did you not hear the bit where I said I knew you liked me first?" Jack teases. "You like and love me, and I like and love you. That's all there is to it. Although…" She gets a little bashful, swinging Pitch's hand back and forth a bit. "There is one thing that I'm not entirely sure of."

Pitch frowns. "And what is that?"

"I wanna kiss you," Jack says bold faced, though her face is not entirely free of color. Pitch feels his own cheeks must be brighter than their usual ashen hue. "But you've never really struck me as someone who kisses, but that might just be because of the whole rawr! Scary Bogeyman thing, so I don't know if-" Naturally, the only way for Pitch to reassure her is to kiss her.

Her lips are pleasantly cool, not ice cold.

Her lips are pleasantly cool, not ice cold. He has to lean down in order to reach her, and any extended stay in this position will likely be uncomfortable, but it will be most worth it. For just a second Pitch wonders if maybe he should have given Jack a little warning but when he pulls back she just stares at him before grinning and saying: "So you're cool with kissing?"

"Yes," Pitch chuckles, "I'm fine with-" and anything else he was going to say is cut off by Jack grabbing both sides of his face and hauling him down for another kiss, this time firmer and longer.

"Mmm," Jack breathes after a few long moments of trading air between them, her fingers tangled in Pitch's hair. "Should've done this sooner. Kissing you is fun."

Pitch can only give a quiet sound of agreement, feeling more alive in the past ten minutes than he has in literal centuries. "We should probably sit though."

"What, your back giving you troubles, old man?" Jack teases, a mischievous glint in her eye as she uses her hold on his hair to tug Pitch closer to her.

"No-oot at the moment," Pitch says, barely swallowing a moan and wondering just how Jack was making his blood feel like it was boiling just from playing with his hair. "But do you want to stand the whole time?"

Jack ponders that a moment before nodding. "Sitting and kissing should be just as fun as standing and kissing."

"Well, so long as it's fun," Pitch snarks, pressing a quick peck against her lips before whisking them away through his shadows.

Ack, sorry for the delay y'all, I got a little busy making tiny cauldrons this weekend. They're gonna look so fucking cute once I put them on coasters with the skulls I made. Anywho, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I'm too ace to write a decent kiss scene but I'm trying. Meanwhile Pitch is simping, Jack is handsy and having fun, these idiots are in love, and they're gonna have a baby :3c