Silver landed in the dark of her home with the grandest of smiles on her face.
"Pitch?" She called into the dark. Instead of an answer, she felt something come up behind her and arms were suddenly around her waist.
"How was your trip?" Pitch's voice purred in her ear. Silver smiled even broader, North was right, Pitch must like her.
"I made some new friends," She replied covering his hands with her own.
"I bet they loved you," Pitch drawled, his chin resting on her shoulder.
"The elves certainly did. They brought me eggnog whenever I wanted some." Silver said, enjoying Pitch's arms around her.
"I thought I smelled eggnog." He pressed his lips against her neck.
"You missed me, didn't you?" Silver asked as he continued to kiss her neck and shoulder. Pitch turned Silver around and smirked at her.
"Why would you say that?" Pitch asked and before Silver could answer Pitch took her mouth with his and kissed her blind. When they came up for air, Silver's laugh filled the cavern.
"If it helps, I missed you too." She said and Pitch just kissed her again. This kiss was longer and Silver had to brace herself against his shoulders as he mercilessly took all that he wanted from her mouth. Silver found herself with her back to the wall when Pitch met her eyes again.
"I know a game we could play." Pitch spoke from somewhere deep in his throat. Silver grinned at him, she'd heard his wish during the first kiss.
"I'd love to play, my little nightmare." Silver smiled running her fingers through his hair.
"I'm anything but a little nightmare." Pitch said with a dark twinkle in his eye. Silver smirked with her eyebrows raised.
"I'll believe it when I see it, sweetheart." Silver laughed again as Pitch hoisted her up the wall and kissed her again, his hand twined in her tightly curled hair.
…
Pitch laid across Silver's body on the bed, his head rested on her left shoulder. She had her arm draped over his bare chest and her legs were twined around him.
"I like that game." Silver said kissing the side of Pitch's head, her hand danced across his chest. Pitch nodded.
"I haven't done that in…" Pitch thought for a moment. "A long time." Silver ran her fingers through her hair and resituated herself with Pitch. They were both tired and content to be so.
"You bite." Silver said after a moment of silence.
"You didn't seem to mind." Pitch retorted catching her hand in his, stopping it from playing across his skin.
"I didn't at the time, but that one on my thigh is throbbing just now." Silver squeezed his hand.
"Sorry."
"Are you really?" Silver asked skeptically.
"No." Pitch replied candidly. Silver pressed her head against his temple.
"I thought not. Maybe next time I'll bite you and see how you like it." She nipped at his ear. He retaliated by nipping her fingers. "Ow." She complained with a smile.
"Tell me about your time at the Pole." Pitch said suddenly. Silver put her other arm around him and sighed. She shifted beneath him again.
"It took some time after you left for me to get North to calm down enough to listen to my story, but I got it out." Silver started. She was trying to remember what all happened, her brain was a little scattered at the moment. "I spent most of the time running around, harassing the yetis and elves actually." Silver admitted.
"Did you?" Pitch asked, eyes closed as he listened to her voice thrumming in her throat.
"I did." Silver smiled against his head. She loved being this close to Pitch, especially when she'd been away from him for a while. Then Silver frowned. "They told me what you did." She said softly. Pitch's hand stilled on hers.
"Did they now?" Pitch said carefully. "What did they tell you?"
"They told me you stole all the teeth from the Tooth Fairy, and all of her fairies…" Silver said. "And that you gave all the children nightmares. Made them lose hope."
"And that I ruined Easter for that oversized bunny?" Pitch offered. Silver nodded. Pitch rolled over so that Silver was beneath him. Her eyes searched his for something, maybe an apology she knew he wouldn't have.
"Yes." Silver's eyes were wide as he watched her.
"You're afraid to ask me why." Pitch said watching her face, looking everywhere but in her eyes. Silver nodded. Pitch sighed. "I wanted to be believed in." Pitch said simply, rolling off Silver to look at the ceiling from his back. Silver moved so that she rested against his chest again. Pitch's robe was back.
"Wanted?" Silver asked.
"I was defeated." Pitch said, not looking at her.
"And I was your punishment." Silver whispered. Pitch didn't respond. "You knew, didn't you?" She sat up, her hand splayed on his chest as she watched his face. Her eyebrows were drawn together.
"Cally was my punishment." Pitch said after a moment. He wasn't quite looking at her still.
"And Cally died." Silver spoke softly. "That's cruel." She said. Pitch's hand rested on the back of her head.
"Cruel is a matter of perspective." Pitch replied. Silver moved to peer into his face better. He watched her touch his cheek with her fingertips.
"I don't think it's wrong to want to be believed in," Silver spoke softly. "So if Cally was your punishment, what does that make me?" She asked after another silent moment. Silver honestly wanted to know why Pitch had let her stay with him after all that. She knew he hadn't enjoyed being trapped in her room, and while what just happened between them said one thing, she needed to hear it to make it real.
"You forget that Cally is a part of you." Pitch pointed out. Silver rested her head against Pitch's chest again. He played with her hair.
"You're the only one I've been able to contain with those chains," Silver said. She heard Pitch's heartbeat speed up a bit as he thought about that fact. "So am I somehow still a punishment?" Silver asked softly, worried. Pitch didn't respond for some time. In some ways, it was punishment for him to care for her. In other ways, it was the best thing that had ever happened to the Nightmare King. As far as those chains go, Pitch has little reason to believe she would turn against him. Silver was all love, after all.
"You may be my punishment, but you're also my prize." Pitch said finally. Silver smiled against the front of his robes.
"I believe in you Pitch. I always have." Silver said. Pitch groaned.
"You'll be the death of me yet." He said rolling so that she was beneath him once more. He grinned at her with those shark-sharp teeth of his shining in the half-light.
"I hope so." Silver teased cradling his face in her hands. Pitch made a low sound in his throat and kissed her with enough force to push her back into the mattress.
Jack landed in the dark of the cave after wavering for a bit outside. Silver had invited him, what's the worst that could happen? Nevertheless, Jack held his staff at the ready as he padded along the cobblestone.
"What's this?" Pitch asked from the shadows behind Jack. Jack whipped around, his staff pointed directly at Pitch's chest. "Did you reconsider my offer to join me? You're a bit late for that." Pitch asked skeptically watching the winter sprite with an aloof smirk.
"I'm here for Silver," Jack said, eyes narrowed.
"She's in the other room." Pitch said easily, bobbing his head towards the shadows behind him, watching Jack for signs of an attack.
"She told me to come visit her," Jack said warily following Pitch with his staff as the Nightmare King strode across the room with a flippant, self-assured air. Pitch nodded.
"Silver?" Pitch called into the dark. There was a shuffling sound and Silver appeared from the other room.
"Here I am!" She announced with her usual smile.
"You have a visitor." Pitch motioned to the winter sprite.
"Jack!" Silver's hair curled tightly and Pitch wrinkled his nose at her, offended that she was happier to see Jack than him. Who knew he was the jealous type?
Silver flung herself at Jack and enveloped in one of her now semi-famous hugs. Jack was looking over her head with a slight grin and a wary eye on Pitch.
"I didn't think you'd come!" Silver laughed, stepping back.
"You said you wanted to have some fun," Jack grinned at her.
"Hey!" Pitch suddenly interjected. "You can't just do that!" Both Silver and Jack stared at Pitch and his suddenly outburst.
"Do what?" Jack asked, eyebrow raised, mischievous smile still playing on his face.
"You can't just…" Pitch sputtered angrily. "Just!" Pitch's eyes were somewhere between furious and frightened. "You can't just do that!"
"What?" Jack asked again. "You lost me." Pitch grumbled something incoherent and angry sounding before he turned and stormed away. Jack and Silver exchanged a look.
"Look what you've done, Jack. You broke Pitch." Silver said rolling her eyes with a slight grin. She looked off in the direction he had gone.
"Had I known it was that easy…" Jack said sarcastically. Silver laughed.
"Let me go talk to him quick, then we can go have some fun, ok?" Silver said. "Wait here." She bounced off, leaving Jack temporarily alone in the dark.
"Pitch?" Silver asked coming up on the nightmare himself. He was facing away from her.
"Where's Jack?" Pitch asked not turning back to her.
"In the big room still, I just came to make sure you were ok. You're acting weird." Silver said moving to stand next to him. Pitch glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
"I'm fine." Pitch said sharply. "Go have fun." Silver touched his arm. Pitch tried not to recoil. He wasn't used to feeling in his chest and so he switched to anger, and he wanted anything but to be angry with Silver.
"I'll be back soon." Silver pulled herself up to his cheek and kissed it gently. "Don't miss me too much." She kissed his lips then and winked at him, then left him standing there in the dark. Pitch scoffed at his own foolishness and went off himself. He had his own things to do after all.
Silver was smiling when she returned to the big room where Jack was looking around. He turned to her with a barely contained snicker when he heard her enter.
"Everything alright?" Jack asked.
"Yup, let's go have fun." Silver grinned broader and they both flew out of the cave and into the morning sun.
Pitch heard Silver's laugh as he made his way back to the cave. He hid from view and watched as Jack and Silver twirled around the ice on the pond in the afternoon light. Silver was holding on to Jack as he spun her around. She was laughing more than Pitch had ever heard her laugh. Pitch hated that he couldn't make her laugh like that. Silver let go of Jack's hand and went spinning off into one of the snow banks along the edge of the pond.
"Jack!" Silver giggled and she shook the snow out of her halo of silver curls.
"Oops," Jack grinned back, moving to help her back to her feet. Pitch turned away from them, moving back into the darker shadows before going home. Something green was eating at the back of his mind.
Silver looked past Jack suddenly, something had caught her eye in the shadows.
"What?" Jack asked peering in the same direction as Silver. She shook her head.
"Nothing." Silver said. "Just thought I saw someone coming through the trees." She shrugged.
"I don't see anyone." Jack said. Silver nodded then turned her bright eyes back to him, her smile mostly gone.
"I have a question," Silver said seriously. Jack motioned for her to ask as he leaned on his staff.
"What is it?"
"Have you ever heard a voice in the dark that didn't seem to have a body? Or do you know of someone that can do that?" Silver was wringing her hands now. Jack frowned as he thought.
"Only person I can think of that does that is Pitch. Why?" Jack replied.
"I know it isn't Pitch though. You sure there isn't somebody else?" Silver pleaded. Jack shrugged.
"No one I've heard of. But I don't exactly know everything." Jack smiled at her reassuringly. "I bet it's just Pitch playing tricks on you."
"I know it's not him though. It's not his voice. This voice, he knows things, and he's cruel."
"Pitch can be cruel." Jack offered. Silver's hair went sharp.
"It's not Pitch!" She asserted angrily. "And he's not cruel. Not to me." Silver crossed her arms. Jack held up his hands in surrender.
"What did this voice say to you to get you so upset anyway?" Jack asked pulling Silver out onto the pond again. Silver let him spin her around a few times before she responded.
"He told me my name the first time. Told me I was Silver, not Cally anymore. The second time, he was just mean. He yelled and it echoed in my head until Pitch found me on the floor." Silver shivered at the memory. Jack let her go and she slid to a stop across from him.
"That's odd." Jack said.
"He hasn't talked to me since then, and he never says anything if Pitch is around. And I can't chain him because he's just a voice." Silver added.
"Chain him?" Jack asked, a grin tugging at his lips.
"I can make chains from moonlight that bind people. Well, I assume people. It works on Pitch anyways. Honestly, it might just be Pitch I can chain now that I think about it." Silver shrugged.
"You've chained up Pitch?" Jack's eyebrow was raised about a mile off his forehead. Silver smacked him with the back of her hand. "Ow! I didn't say anything!" Jack laughed at Silver's disapproving face.
"It was an accident," Silver snorted at him. "Should I try to chain you up? Make you wait for spring to thaw your pond?" Silver shifted her weight so that she was in more of a fighting stance. Jack just stuck his tongue out at her. She shot a chain at him and he dodged it easily. Silver spent the rest of the afternoon chasing Jack around in the woods and across the pond, trying to chain him down. But that winter sprite sure was quick…
So she only caught him once, and that wasn't with her chains.