Pitch comes to a halt a few feet away, and gives him a small smile, his head cocked slightly as though he's not quite sure what to make of the situation.

That makes two of them, then.

"Hello, Jack."

"Hello Pitch," Jack says, and then his mouth runs out of words. He has plenty of thoughts, though, racing through his mind at speeds that break the sound barrier:

I've been skating, I'm not stalking you, honest.

This is my sister, I'm not cheating on you.

But I'm gay, so, you know, if I was it wouldn't be with a woman.

But I'm not cheating on you because god, do you know what you do to me?

And oh god this is your daughter, this is serious-

Oh god, oh god, I'm sorry-

It's probably for the best that he doesn't manage to say any of them.

"Papa, is this the Jack you've been telling me about?" Seraphina asks in an accent that is mostly British with an American twang. Jack's mind adds a few more oh gods at the thought that Pitch has been talking to his daughter about him.

"It is," Pitch says, and Seraphina's smile turns a little shy as she looks back up at Jack.

"Papa talks about you a lot," she tells him. "And Mama says that you're his boyfriend."

Jack's mind doesn't have any words for that. He only stares down at her, and then back up at Pitch. At least he has the courtesy to look embarrassed, a slight blush spreading over his cheeks.

Which is kinda hot, Jack's mind adds helpfully.

"That's one way of putting it," Pitch says, and Jack wonders if maybe he's dreaming, because that would sure explain a lot. He tries to surreptitiously pinch himself as Pitch looks at Tooth. "I don't think I caught your name. My daughter likes your hair."

"I'm Tooth. Jack's sister," she says, and smiles down at Seraphina.

Seraphina frowns. "That's a weird name."

"Seraphina, mind your manners," Pitch says, scolding lightly, but Tooth only laughs.

"My mom had a phase of giving her kids strange names. My full name is Toothiana. One of our other brothers is called Bunnymund."

Seraphina thinks about that and then smiles. "Toothiana is a pretty name. How do you get your hair like that?"

"I have a really good hairdresser," Tooth says with a grin. "She dyes it all kinds of colours for me."

Seraphina tugs on Pitch's arm. "Can I dye my hair, Papa?"

His eye twitches and his lips thin, but he manages to keep his answer even and calm. "Maybe when you're older," he says, but from the thoughtful look on Seraphina's face, it looks like they'll be returning to this conversation.

Tooth turns her attention to Pitch, and the warmth with which she spoke to Seraphina hardens into a smile that's politeness and nothing more. "Jack's been telling me about you as well. One of the things that he mentioned is that you're thirty-six. That makes you twice his age."

"Yes, I know," Pitch says. "I'm quite good at basic maths."

They glare at each other, and Jack's stomach swoops and dives.

"Hey, you know what?" He says hurriedly and a little too loudly. "We were going to go over to the food stalls." It's mostly to give Pitch a way to bow out and get away from Tooth and her accusatory tone, but Seraphina tugs on his sleeve.

"Papa, can we go too? I want a pretzel!" Pitch looks down at her, and Jack can practically see the refusal on his lips; but then when he sees her enthusiastic smile his face softens in a very specific way, and he smiles a smile Jack's not seen before; a smile that's just for Seraphina.

"Alright," he says, with only the slightest hint of defeat in his voice, and the way that she beams at him melts Jack's heart a little, too.

"I like the cheese-stuffed pretzels," she says as they wind their way through the Saturday crowds, looking up at Jack. "And I like the chocolate covered fruit. And the cider!"

"Me too," Jack says dully, wondering where that great-with-kids part of him is hiding out.

"My favourite is the hot chocolate," Tooth says with a wink. "Wherever I am, I like to try hot chocolate. I live in London, and I try to have it somewhere new every week. There's lots of hot chocolate to try in London."

"We're going to London next month!" Seraphina says, looking up at her papa, who nods. Jack stares at him. It shouldn't hurt nearly as much as it does that Pitch hasn't mentioned that to him yet. "You'll have to tell us some places to go."

"I'll write a list and give it to Jack," Tooth promises, and points out an empty table. She breaks into a run to grab it before anyone else does.

"I didn't know you were going to London," Jack says quietly, and Pitch glances at him.

"I'm sorry. I should have told you."

"Why didn't you?"

A thoughtful pause, and then an elegant shrug of leather-clad shoulders. "We were still finding our feet with each other. I wanted to know where we stood with one another first."

"And where do we stand?"

"Together." Pitch says as they arrive at the table. He helps Seraphina into one of the tall, bar stool-like seats and then touches Jack's shoulder. "We'll talk about this later. Will you watch Seraphina while I go to get the food?"

Jack nods, and then realises that Pitch is trusting him with his daughter, and that's kind of a big deal.

"I'll come with you," Tooth says. "Pretzel and hot chocolate, right, Jack?"

Jack nods, and it's only after they've started to walk away that he realises that they're going to be talking to each other, and that things might go horribly wrong.

"Have you ever been to London?" Seraphina asks, and Jack forces himself to turn to her and pay attention instead of catastrophising. It's not like Tooth's reallygoing to threaten Pitch and make him dump Jack. That's probably, almost definitely not a thing that is going to happen.

"I have," Jack says, turning to her with a smile. It's forced to start with, but becomes real when he sees how sweetly she smiles at him, how interested in his answer she is. Like her father, she actually cares about what he has to say. "In fact, Tooth asked me just this afternoon if I'd go visit her."

"Why don't you come when me and Mama and Papa go? We could get to know each other on the way there."

Jack blinks at her. "We could, couldn't we," he says, and looks over at Tooth and Pitch. They're facing away from him and he can't tell much from their backs, but neither of them is punching the other, so he takes that as a good sign.