Hello World

I’M NOT LATE YOU’RE LATE

This was gonna be for the Ring prompt from last year’s RotG Halloween. 😂 Pls enjoy drippy demon Pitch.

(Finally Part 4!)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Jack did not know how he and Pitch were still friends. 

It’d been a few days but he was still mortified over how he’d handled those candies. Usually he didn’t let social slip ups bother him. If someone wanted to be offended by his playful or carefree attitude, especially after centuries of mainly talking to himself, then the relationship probably wasn’t worth his time. 

Pitch… hadn’t been offended per se. More like rendered speechless. Instead of Jack trying to explain himself or, more likely, talk himself into a deeper hole, he’d kind of just… thanked Pitch and ran. 

Fuck. 

Pitch was in some kind of mood tonight. 

His kisses were desperate. Claiming. So deep that Jack’s head was bent back to chase his tongue. It took a proper bite to get Pitch to ease up. 

Jack laughed. Pitch still looked like he wanted to eat him. 

Was it wrong of him? To love Jack this much?

There were times where all Pitch wanted to do was dig his fingers in, pull Jack’s body tight, keep him so close that he could be comfortably caged within Pitch’s ribs. 

Pitch would be the first to defend how necessary nightmares were. All Sandy did was smooth over fractures of the psyche with fluff. Still… 

When Pitch found Jack napping on his couch, golden little penguins dancing around his head, he hesitated. 

He couldn’t bring himself to break that soft smile. 

Part 3 of this silly series

(Part 1, Part 2)

That had not gone according to plan at all. 

It had started fine, Jack laughing as they twirled across the floor. Only when Jack decided to get on his own two feet to mimic his steps did Pitch realize they were doing it backwards. 

He hardly could have asked Jack to just unlearn and reverse everything they’d done. It was miracle enough Pitch remembered what the orbit dance even was, yet he had a fuzzy, long repressed memory of a soldier in his barracks being mocked for orbiting backwards with his beloved, opposite to the starset. 

A rookie mistake, he remembered thinking. And yet. 

Pitch was glaring daggers at his stone countertop. Fumbling the orbit dance was supposedly a bad omen. 

Of course, nothing seemed wrong with the wide smile on Jack’s face that night. He had no idea of the distress going on in Pitch’s head. He was merely happy to be doing something new. Said they should do it again some time. Seemed reluctant to even let Pitch go. 

And that was why Pitch was in his kitchen attempting to melt sugar into a confection that resembled a star. 

Star candies had been a delicacy in their home. They may have traditionally been meant for new and prospective couples, but Seraphina and her mother loved them. He always brought a box back when he returned home from a mission. 

Never in a thousand years did Pitch think he would try his hand at making them. 

It wasn’t going to be the same, of course. Earth didn’t have glowsugar for starters, and Pitch didn’t have a recipe to work from. Jack just deserved better than some random candy. Earth couples seemed too hung up on chocolates anyway. A star candy would be something special. 

And so, after days of perfecting his recipe and getting the shape just right, he presented his offering to Jack. 

Only to be mildly horrified when Jack popped one in his mouth and—

Crunch. 

Shattered. In one bite. 

Jack licked his lips after swallowing the sweet little shards, already plucking another one out of the bag Pitch gave him. “Where’d you get these, huh? Tastes kind of like… fruity cream soda.”

Crunch. 

“…I made them,” Pitch explained on autopilot, still stunned and a little impressed by that jaw strength.  “Something I remembered from… the before times, is what you’d say.”

That made Jack stop. 

“Holy shit, since when do you make candy?!” Jack sounded rather stunned himself. “Is my tongue gonna turn black or something? That’d be… kinda cool, maybe.”

Pitch sighed and folded his arms. Oh Jack and his fondness for pranks. “That… could be an interesting idea but no. I meant, before I was the Nightmare King. Call me nostalgic, I suppose.”

Jack’s expression grew more serious, until a burst of color flooded his pale cheeks and suddenly he could only stare down at the little sugar stars in his hand. “But you gave them to me?…” 

“I thought you might enjoy them.” Pitch kept his tone cool and his arms crossed, but took a step closer. Better to study (read agonize over) Jack’s reaction. “Although you’re supposed to suck on them. The ones I remember, the flavor would last for hours. They’re supposed to… remind you of who gave them to you.” 

Damnit all, now his face was feeling warm. Good thing Jack wasn’t looking. 

“Wha-! Shit, I’m sorry!” Jack held his hands up, full as they were, in surrender. “Bad habit of mine. I used to like crunching on ice a lot. Uh—“ 

Blue eyes suddenly met gold. Jack had something extremely important to tell him. 

“I promise I will suck on every last one!”

(I’m diving hard into the idea behind Unfamiliar Customs so HERE WE GO 🤣)

“You’re quiet tonight,” Jack remarked innocently as Pitch guided them across the stone floor. Music was softly echoing through the lair. Pitch had said he wanted to dance, and Jack would never pass that up, so Pitch had him learning the finer points of the waltz. 

Seemed like he was concentrating awfully hard though. 

“It wouldn’t do to step on your bare feet,” Pitch retorted, though not with his usual snappiness. 

“Mmhm.” Jack didn’t believe him. And that was weird. When Pitch was trying to be cagey, he got cryptic or angry. Not weird. 

So Pitch deserved every bit of his suspicious glare. 

Pitch stopped altogether when he noticed, sighing, almost …sheepish? Something was weird. 

“I actually… wanted to show you a different dance. Are you up for it?” 

Jack blinked. Was that all? “Yeah, I’m up for anything. Let’s do it.” 

Pitch nodded, steeling himself, and Jack had to wonder was he actually nervous? Jack bit his lip and tried not to chuckle. He shouldn’t find that so cute. 

“Alright, here.” Pitch stepped up, a lot closer than the waltz, and oh. There was an arm around his back and their chests were flush. Pitch positioned Jack’s hand up on his shoulder, and held his other hand out from their bodies. Almost like a tango. 

Oh Gods was Pitch teaching him the tango?! Jack felt immediately warmer and was so grateful his palms couldn’t sweat. 

…Right?

“You can put your feet on mine while I demonstrate. It’s… almost like a waltz.” 

Jack used the opportunity to look down and hide his blush, carefully stepping up onto Pitch’s shadow covered feet. 

Footies, he corrected internally. They were footies and nothing could convince him otherwise. Jack couldn’t hold back his laughter and muffled it right into Pitch’s chest. This was so ridiculous! He couldn’t handle all this anticipation and then get hit with the reminder of Pitch’s footies. 

And then blush all the brighter when his eyes landed on sculpted gray skin because his face landed right into the plunge of that deep v-neck. Fuck. 

He peeked up at Pitch, surprised to see the Boogeyman a little flushed himself. 

“...We don’t have t—” 

“No no!” Jack hastily cut that suggestion off and straightened back up. “I’m good, sorry. Please, show me. I want to know.” 

I want you to teach me. 

Pitch took a breath, and finally smiled, putting Jack at ease. He could handle this. He could lock the fuck in for as long as Pitch was willing to indulge him. 

“It’s a simple dance,” Pitch explained, slowly stepping them forward. “We’ll go in a circle and slowly turn in a circle, and then I’ll guide you in a circle around… me.” He could have sworn Pitch’s cheeks got darker when he said that. “Understand?” 

Jack nodded, his toes trying to clench into whatever the material covering Pitch’s feet was. “I think so. Just don’t be mad if I get dizzy and trip okay?” 

“If you focus on me you won’t get dizzy. That’s… It’s supposed to be symbolic that way.” 

Jack gave Pitch a mischievous grin. “Symbolic, huh?” Pitch wanted to get symbolic with him? 

He kind of liked the sound of that. 

Pitch didn’t answer. Merely pulled Jack closer with a familiar smirk and guided them into the next step in time with the music. “Eyes on me, Snowflake.” 

Jack snickered. As if he could look anywhere else. 

(Idk how the rest of this is gonna go but whatever let’s see what happens.

Pitch cursed his ignorance. 

His previous marriage had been arranged. He hadn’t needed to pay attention to the rules and intricacies of celestial courting with a war to fight. 

Now, here he was. Hundreds and hundreds of years later. Unsure if he gave Jack the woven bracelet first, or asked for his hand in the orbit dance. 

…Or was it the luminary dance. 

How did that dance even go again?  

Pitch irritably rubbed a hand over his eyes. Stars, he was about to make a fool of himself. 

But, at the same time, he knew. 

Thin fingers were clenched tightly into Pitch’s robe. Jack was having a blast clinging to his back, laughing and hollering as Pitch steered Onyx from the sky and plunged down through the shadows below.

Frost lightning flashed in their wake.  

Pitch was splayed on the couch, resting on Jack’s chest. Usually it was the other way around. 

Rarely was Pitch asleep while Jack wasn’t. Seeing the Boogeyman so unguarded around him gave Jack such a warm, fuzzy feeling.