He was stuck with the whiny fairy and that hot shot kangaroo. Pitch rolled his gold eyes, repulsed with the two Guardians he deemed most agitating. The Nightmare King had been placed in the corner of the living room, sitting on the carpeted floor uncomfortably. With no use of his powers, he was unable to seat himself upon his shadows. The previous night was spent with him sitting statue-like, eyes closed and face blank. Pitch had tried to fall into a sleep-like state, where he could swell in his anger and fantasize about the most creative ways of torturing the Guardians, and also to attempt to summon his precious nightmares. It was a hopeless task with that cursed little featherbrain fairy doing "remote work" right next to him, chirping locations of children's teeth to her "baby tooths." Pitch hated those annoying little creatures, and the feeling was mutual to the little fairies about Pitch. He received many death glares from the twittering busybodies for his past actions of kidnapping the fairies.

The blasted Easter kangaroo wasn't any better. When he wasn't complaining in his stupid accent, he crunched on a carrot in an annoying fashion, inches away from Pitch's ear. Together, the two Guardians had managed to create a nasty headache for Pitch by the time the sun rose. Even more of an irritation to the Nightmare King was that Pitch couldn't mock or irritate the pair back. A golden dream sand gag felt cold against his mouth, capturing perhaps his most powerful weapon, in the meantime.

The Nightmare King was currently wondering absently about whether his tongue would stick into his gag if he pushed it out, when that pathetic Bill woke up. Pajama pants hung loosely from his narrow hips, and his torso wasn't clothed. Tooth and some of her fairies giggled quietly amongst themselves. As the young man went to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, Pitch saw the scratch marks on his back. This made his black imagination run loose and he felt instantly better.

Sera got up soon after. She was wearing an oversized black shirt, probably belonging to Bill. It was still long enough to where Pitch couldn't see where the barbwire tattoo on her leg ended. Her dark and blue tipped hair was pulled into a messy bun on top of her head. Sera had shadows around her eyes, but the left one was surrounded by a nasty, newly developed, blue bruise. Her lower lip was swollen and cracked with dehydration.

Bill passed her a cup of coffee and handed over an apple. "Breakfast," he gave a sleepy smile.

Sera turned down the offer, waving it away with a shaky pale hand. "No thanks, I'm too nervous," she muttered, her voice tired and still slightly hoarse from the attack.

Bill frowned, concerned. "Why?"

"I have an important audition today, for a company that provides dancers for music videos and concerts." Sera explained importantly, stretching her arms.

Bill lifted his eyebrows. "Well, if I were you, I wouldn't want to blank out right in the middle of something as big as that."

Sera stared at him for a moment, and then took the apple. She started to carefully cut it into thin slices, her dark brows furrowed in concentration as she separated the apple into careful pieces.

"You know you could eat that three times faster, right?" Bill called out over his shoulder as he walked to the bathroom. Sera ignored his words and threw half of the apple in the rubbish bin as soon as he was out of eyeshot. Then she started to patiently nibble her slices.

It took the girl half an hour to finish, and when her plate was finally empty she glanced at the clock and rushed to the bedroom. She came out wearing black leggings and a simple knee length dress. Sera threw a red canvas bag over her shoulder. "I'm going," she shouted to Bill as she ran to the door and pulled her boots and leather jacket on. She was just about to close the door behind her when she reached into her pocket – and froze on her feet. "Well, fuck."

Pitch's gold eyes followed her, amused when the girl squirreled fiercely around the room, emptying the contents of every box and drawer onto the floor. "Not now, not now, not now," she muttered, exasperated. "Bill, have you seen my earphones?"

"No," he shouted back from the bedroom.

"Of course not," she hissed while pulling a drinking bottle, some clothes and a pair of dancing shoes out of her bag and turned it upside down.

Bill peeked from the bedroom. "Why don't you just go on without them before you're late?"

"No, no, no!" Sera shook her head determinately. "Life without a working pair of earphones is no life at all!" Bill rolled his eyes and tossed her a black pile of wires.

"Fine, then. Have mine."

"Thank you!" she immediately brightened with a smile, and packed her bag back up. In no time, Sera stormed out of the apartment, leaving Bill on his own. He sighed, looking at the mess she had made. After Sera slammed the door behind her, Pitch lost interest in his surroundings again, returning to his statue posture.

A few hours later, Bill was received a phone call from his friend, Rich. He turned the phone on to speaker mode and placed the mobile on an arm of the sofa, leaving both of his hands free to continue painting his nails black.

"So, do you want me to come over?" Rich asked after a few minutes of light conversation.

"No, I'm not at my parent's house anymore," Bill answered, applying a coat to his left thumb.

"Back at Sera's already?"

"Yeah, I don't know. I just… I don't like to be away from her, since you never know when she takes off and everything."

"Takes off? She just gets up and goes, whenever she wants?" Rich sounded confused.

"Yeah, like last month. She just packed her stuff and said she wanted to go to Scotland for a couple of weeks. She didn't answer any of my calls, and I was all nervous 'cause I didn't know what she was doing," Bill paused, swallowing hard, "Or who she was doing."

"No kidding?" Rich sounded astounded on the other end of the line. "If my girl would do something like that, I'd dump that bitch!"

Bill smiled shortly. "That's not how it kinda works between us, Richie. I knew what I was bargaining for, she doesn't really hide that she has others. I just didn't realize it would bother me this much, y'know?"

"Then why do you take it, man?"

Bill flinched internally. "Because, the moment I try to possess her, she's out the door."

"And why would that be so bad?"

Bill stopped to stare at his black nails. "It sounds stupid but," he let out a soft sigh. "She needs me."

oooOooo

AN: So I have been writing all evening and the chapter was just stretching and stretching… So I decided to split it in half so I wouldn't have to censor it shorter just so it would be more pleasant to read. This part was kind of boring, but you will get the entertaining part to tomorrow, okay?

All the lovely reviews! I really couldn't expect the warm welcome this story got, so thank you so much everyone! The reviews and follows are the ones that get me writing.

I had this huge insecurity attack today and felt like I suck at writing, especially in English. I'm really sorry for the grammar mistakes out there, for now my only beta is Microsoft Word so… I do have some actual concern though: I have been focusing in Pitch and Sera in the story, would you guys like to hear more about what the Guardians are doing? Let me know!

Till tomorrow,

~Janice