Chapter 3

In Which I Smash a Pumpkin

The world around me was dark. Black mixed with dark blue, creating a visible swirling wind that wrapped around me. The landscape was bleak, the only visible structures were broken, the ground cracked and dry. The air felt suffocating and I couldn't change it. I was alone. I was scared.

"Hello?" The echo of my voice was the only answer. The air closed in on my even tighter and I started to feel claustrophobic even though I was standing in the open. My heart began to pound, blood racing through my veins. Breathing became difficult, my lungs ached from trying to inhale and the world around me seemed to be spinning.

Suddenly, a hand was resting on my hip, steadying me. The hand was grey, connected to an arm clad in black. My gaze followed up that arm as I turned to face him. A long dark robe that seemed to swallow all light, a robe I knew from experience was warm and had the scent of damp stone and moss. Grey skin continued underneath, a lean chest bared in the part of the robe below a thick neck, up to a sharp jawline, an aquiline nose and hypnotizing eyes that changed from golden to silver at will.

He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. I reached out and touched his cheek. Real.

The landscape didn't seem so terrible now. The bleakness was gone, the emptiness creating an intimacy that intensified each touch.

"Rona." I shivered at the sound of his voice. His arms found their way around my waist and I leaned back against him, closing my eyes. He felt so wonderful; I'd missed his touch. I'd forgotten how comforting he could be when he wasn't so mean. I'd forgotten how cold his hands were. Wait, what?

I looked down to the arms around my waist. The hands were pale now, the sleeves of his jacket blue and laced with frost. I turned to face him, his beautiful blue eyes, a soft smile and messy white hair. The cold only made me press myself closer to him, and he just held me tighter.

"Rona." He had brought back my best friend, stayed by me even when I had sided with his enemy, even when I had killed someone. He accepted me, taught me how to fly, helped me to smile again when I felt alone.

Our lips met; his were even softer than they looked. The cold felt refreshing in contrast to the hot air that had suffocated me earlier. We had barely stopped our first kiss when our second started, our lips parting. I felt just a hint of teeth on my lower lip and pulled back in shock. He grinned at me, mischievous as always. I grinned and kissed him again, returning the light bite.

Both of our lips parted in the next kiss, a hint of cold slipping between my teeth as he deepened the kiss. I felt one of his hands tangle in my hair, keeping our lips pressed together, the other hand resting at the small of my back. I couldn't have escaped the embrace if I wanted to. And I didn't.

I wanted more.

"WAKE UP!"

"Gyah!" I fell off the table before I could stop myself, landing on the floor in an ungraceful heap. I blinked a few times, my heart beating fast and not from being startled. What the hell was that?.. I looked up into a grinning face; the one I'd just been dreaming of. Oh my god. My face felt so hot my cheeks might as well have been on fire.

"Hey, what were you dreaming about?" Jack flipped up and crouched on the top of his staff, grinning still." I stood up and brushed myself off, looking down at my clothing to avoid looking him in the eye.

"I wasn't dreaming. I was just taking a nap to pass the time."

"Riiiight, so you just normally talk when you're napping?" Oh. My. God.

"I was talking?" Please, please, please… "What'd I say?"

"Hah, so you WERE dreaming! You didn't really say much, nothing I could understand anyways. You drooled, though." I grimaced and wiped at my mouth. "No I didn't…" He laughed at me and jumped down.

"So, any plans for the day? Day after Halloween is always one of my favorites. Ever smashed a frozen pumpkin?" I grinned and finally looked him in the face, managing to not get flustered. It was just a stupid dream, it didn't mean anything.

"Sounds like fun."

The pumpkin patch wasn't abandoned, per se. Someone had dropped a pumpkin and forgotten about it years ago, and the seeds had spread, flourished. The cycle continued each year until the growth had reached the treelines on both ends of the field. It was quite a sight.

Jack and I landed in the middle of the field, me on the ground and him on a pumpkin. Frost spread over it in a lace-like pattern. Once it was completely covered, he hopped down and gave it a little kick. It sounded hollow now. He grinned and lifted his staff above his head, bringing it down with a sharp 'crack'. Pieces of frozen pumpkin went flying everywhere, including Jack's hair. I laughed and decided not to tell him about it.

He tapped two more with the end of his staff, then stepped aside. "Your turn."

"Don't mind if I do." I stepped up and kicked it as hard as I could. The sides of the pumpkin shattered, mirroring what my foot felt like. "Ooooow!"

"Oops." Jacks grinned again. "Should've warned you that the pumpkins are pretty hard when they're frozen."

I glared at him and he shrugged. "Hey, you could have told me about this." He pulled the chunk of now-melting pumpkin out of his hair.

"Touche." I laughed, then turned to the other pumpkin.

"Ever tried this?"

Pitch fumed silently as he watched her fly, holding a frozen pumpkin. When she reached around 150 feet she suddenly dropped it. It hit the ground and exploded, and she laughed. So did her new friend. He laughed with her, flew with her, and although the mischievous didn't notice her stolen glances and the blush on her cheeks, he did. And it only made him angrier. He could feel the wrath inside his gut, burning and fighting to be released.

The longer he watched Jack and Rona together, the more it hurt. He wanted to run out there, to take Rona away from Jack and keep her somewhere where she wouldn't see him again. He wanted to keep her for himself. His fists clenched as Jack lightly punched Rona in the shoulder. How dare he touch her?

"She… is… MINE."

I glanced over at the treeline, rubbing at the back of my neck and frowning.

"You hear that?"

"Hear what?" Jack sat down on a pumpkin next to me. I glanced over at him and then looked away quickly. As much as I told myself that it was just a dream, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Never mind. It was probably nothing."

Rona had been acting strangely lately. He didn't know when exactly it had started, but he was happy to see her smiling again. He liked to see her smile. And hear her laugh. And spend time with her. He was glad she'd agreed to go with him today. He hoped that if they spent more time together, alone, she would stop thinking about Pitch. That maybe she'd start thinking about him like that.

The dream he'd had last night was so vivid, so real. It had been the first dream he'd had in nearly three decades. But he didn't want it to just be a dream. He wanted to make it real. He wanted to kiss her.

"You hear that?" She was frowning and rubbing at the back of her neck. It drew his attention to her hair. He wanted to run his hands through it. He sat down on a pumpkin, still looking at her hair. "Hear what?"

"Never mind. It was probably nothing." She looked back at him a smile. He loved it when she smiled at him like that. He wanted her.

Whew, got a bit hot and heavy in there. Please review, follow and favorite if you're enjoying the story!