PitchxReader - Black is never just black

 

   “Ow, my head… What the heck happened?” I complain as I struggle to sit up on the pavement, where I ended up somehow. Rubbing the back of my head, I look around to find out, what hit me, only to be met with a plethora of screams and crying.

     “Get those kids out of here!” a commanding voice thunders over the noise.

     A couple of people emerge from the crowd, leading a group of pale, shaking and crying children with them.

     “Excuse me, ma’am, but what is going on?” I ask an elderly lady in front of me, but she completely ignores me. “Jeez, no need to be rude, ya know!” I grumble as I push past her, though I fail to notice something important as I do so.

     No one wants to answer me, so I have to get to the midst of the group to find out, what has happened. But when I make it through the heavy mass of firemen, police and medics gathered around the front of a large truck in the middle of the street, I stop dead, unable to look away from the sight in front of me; the truck has hit a young girl!

     “What do we know so far?” a medic questions and a police officer speaks up.

     “Young female, 24 years old. She managed to push a small group of children out of the way, got hit by the truck and died immediately. Name: (Y/N) (L/N),” the officer states.

     I feel like throwing up or passing out, preferably both, as I look down on my own, bloody corpse.

     I don’t know how much time pass as I stand there, just looking down at myself, but suddenly someone walks right through me and snaps me out of my stupor. With a barely constrained scream, I turn around and run away as fast as my legs can carry me.

     Once I finally stop to catch my breath, I’m deep inside the woods near the city. Looking around I spot the old oak, which I claimed as ‘my private thinking tree’ as a kid. A sad smile spreads over my lips as I walk up to the gnarly bark and climb up to a thick branch, where I lie down, trying to figure out, what has happened so far today, since I seemed to have died, yet am still around.

     “You have been chosen, child.” The sudden sound of an unfamiliar voice makes me jolt up and look around wildly.

     “Who said that?! Show yourself!” I quickly climb from my perch to face the stranger.

     “I am already here; you must simply look up.” Doing so, I see the clear moon through the foliage. “You have been chosen and you will meet your companions soon.”

     “Hey, hang on!” I shout. “Chosen? Chosen for what, exactly?! And what companions are you talking about?!” But to no avail; the voice is completely silent, as though it was just a figment of my imagination. “Oh, great!”

     “My, my, my. I didn’t expect anyone to walk through these woods at this hour,” a deep, suave voice says from somewhere in front of me. “Whatever should we do, my pet? Help her out?”

     “Look, pal,” I call out to him as I turn to face in his general direction. “Unless you’re gonna help me decipher, what that crazy voice was rambling on about, just leave me alone, okay? Please?”

     “You can hear me?” A tall man dressed completely in black steps out of the shadows and pins me with a harsh stare. “How?”

     “Heck if I know.” I shrug, moving towards my oaken perch once more. “I seem to have died earlier after pushing some kids out of the way of a truck, but I’m still here. And then some voice in my head told me some nonsense about having been chosen or something like that.” Once I make it make up to my perch, I lie down again and look down at him with a head-tilt. “Who are you anyway, mister? Haven’t seen you around these parts before.”

     “My name is Pitch Black. But who are you, who are not trembling in fear of my Nightmares?”

     “Sorry about that lack of manners, Mr. Black. I’m (Y/N) (L/N), nice to meet you. But… Nightmares?” I ask, looking down at the eerie, black horses slowly moving around him, their eyes glowing a pale yellow.

     “Nightmares,” he nods, before motioning for me to climb down. “And you may call me Pitch. Now, if you want answers about the voice you heard, my dear, I can assist you, but only if you come down here.”

     Deciding that I don’t really have anything to lose, I climb down once more and as soon as I set foot on the ground, however, the Nightmares swarm me, nudging, sniffing and some even nuzzling me until their master calls them back.

     “I could definitely use some help, if aren’t too busy.” I nod at him in gratitude, as I walk towards him with his Nightmares following closely behind us.

     I’m not sure for how long we walk, but soon we are standing in a large, dark cavern with hardly any light seeping through. “Do you live here?” I ask him, turning around to take in as much of the place as possible, particularly the numerous cages hanging from the ceiling and a large globe with lights blinking all over the landmasses.

     “Yes, this is my lair. You have already met my Nightmares and I am Pitch Black, the… the Boogeyman,” he states, spitting out the last part with disgust.

     “The Boogeyman?” I ask with a raised eyebrow at him. “No offense, but that is a pretty silly and not scary title. I thought, you would prefer ‘Nightmare King’?”

     He spins around to face me. “How can you possibly be this calm in the presence of me and my Nightmares?!” he all but screams at me, throwing his arms out.

     Quite taken aback with his sudden mood swing, I place a hand on his arm. “I honestly don’t know, okay? I guess, I’m still quite shaken up about this ‘dying’-thing and voices telling me I’m chosen for something and then meeting the Nightmare King and all that.” This seems to calm him down enough to continue the tour, until we reach what seems like a throne room, where he gestures for me to take a seat.

     Through the next couple of hours, Pitch explains everything to me about the Guardians and the mysterious Man in the Moon and how the Guardians were chosen to protect the children of the world.

     “But what about you?” I interrupt at one point. “If this Moon-man decided to make them Guardians and all that, there has to be a reason for why, he gave you this power over nightmares for you to perfect?”

     “And there is; my sole purpose in this world is to be defeated and thwarted at every turn by them!” Pitch paces his throne room angrily, while I sit back in his throne, absentmindedly petting the Nightmare next to me.

     “I’m sure that’s not quite it, Pitch,” I try to reassure him. “Everyone seems to have a purpose and we simply need to get these Guardians to understand yours.”

     He is completely silent for a few seconds, not moving a single muscle. “We..?” he asks, sounding almost uncertain.

     Smiling warmly at him, I nod. “Of course. It’s the least I can do for your help so far. Besides, it’s not like I have anything else to do.”

     He nods slowly, clearly needing to process my declaration as he has a Nightmare take me to a small room, where there is an old bed for me to sleep.

     “I hope, I didn’t upset him,” I confide in the Nightmare and she retaliates by gently nudging me towards the bed.

     Over the course of the next couple of days, I spend more time with Pitch, when he’s home and when he is off bringing nightmares to children around the world, I spend my time exploring his lair with a Nightmare by my side, courtesy of Pitch. I have named her Obsidian, Dian for short, and she simply follows me around everywhere like an ever loyal guard dog.

     One night Pitch invites me to join him for a walk in the forest at night, much to my surprise.

     “But… What about the children? Shouldn’t you be off leading the Nightmares around?” I ask as I walk next to him under the dark sky, where the moon can’t be seen. That must have been the reason for the offer tonight, since the Man in the Moon won’t see us and alert the Guardians.

     “They will be perfectly fine, my dear. How are you doing with getting accustomed to your passing and revival?” Pitch offers me his arm as we simply walk around.

     “It still feels a little weird, but at least you found me rather than me having to wander around aimlessly. And I must say that you are nothing like what I would expect of a Nightmare King.” I turn my head to smile up at him and he looks down at me with an unfamiliar look in his eyes.

     “I never thought, I could be this way either, not since I lost my family to the Dream Pirates. But somehow I cannot bring myself to bring any harm to you.” He trails off with a sigh and rubs his forehead with a grimace. “I have never been good with words, (Y/N), but I would appreciate it very much, if you’d… If you would stay with me as my future Nightmare Queen.” He turns to face me fully and grabs both my hands in his as he leans down to place his forehead against mine. “Once Lunar sets his mind to something, it has a way with always being done and I am afraid that once the Guardians find you, I might lose you forever, if I do not tell you this now…” He stops to catch his breath before finishing his declaration. “(Y/N) (L/N), I have found myself falling in love with you.”

     “And I have found myself in love with you, Pitch Black, my Nightmare King.”

     With a relieved look passing over his face, he leans his head down a little further to finally place his lips on mine.

     The night after, Pitch has to lead his Nightmares, so I am walking around to explore more of his underground kingdom, keeping away from the edges and wherever Obsidian nudges me away from. But the peace is all too soon broken by a pair of new voices.

     “Pitch!” one of them shouts and the other snaps at the first to, “Shut up! We don’t want him to find us!”

     Obsidian rears up and motions for me to get on her back, where after she storms off, trying to outrun the strangers. The light sound of her hooves must have alerted the intruders, because almost instantly we hear them following us.

     “Quick, Obsidian! We have to find Pitch!” I tell her, grabbing onto her billowing mane and hold on as she speeds up upon exiting the lair and then she takes off into the sky towards where she must feel Pitch’s presence.

     Soon enough I spot Pitch on a tall roof, where he is standing with his own Nightmare, Onyx. They must have sensed us coming, because Pitch turns around with a surprised look, which changes to happy upon seeing me at first, but as Obsidian touches down next to Onyx, his brow furrows in concern and anger.

     “What happened?” he demands to know, grabbing my waist and pulls me off of Obsidian’s back, so that he can hold me close.

     “There was someone in the lair. They were looking for you… Some sort of ambush, I think…” I ramble off, resting my cheek against his exposed chest and breathe out shakily.

     “Pitch!” a new voice shouts and then the sound of someone landing heavily on the roof.

     Looking over, my jaw just about drops: A tall man with a long, white beard and hair, dressed in something resembling a Santa Claus-costume with his forearms exposed, showing off a bunch of tattoos, namely the ones spelling ‘Naughty’ and ‘Nice’.

     “Let me guess… One of the Guardians?” I ask, looking up at Pitch with a raised eyebrow.

     “North,” Pitch greets, tightening his grip on me. “To what do we owe this displeasure of your company tonight?”

     The newcomer opens his mouth to explain, but before he can say anything, other people shows up; a fairy in a peacock-like garb zooms in from above, a small, yellow man appears on our other side in a yellow airplane, which then dissolves into thin air, a young boy flies up from the building’s side and a large rabbit-hybrid-thing pops up from a hole in the roof.

     “Man in Moon said new Guardian was born,” North says with a heavy, Russian accent as he brandishes two sharp swords and points one of them at Pitch. “We look, but no luck finding Guardian.”

     “Now, how about you hand over the sheila before anyone gets hurt?” the rabbit states in an Australian accent, casually juggling a boomerang in one paw.

     “And why ever should I do that, Bunny? I can assure you all that she is with me quite willingly,” Pitch drawls lazily.  “(Y/N), my dear, please meet Nicholas St. North, also known as Santa or North. The rabbit is Bunnymund, the Easter Bunny. Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy. Here we have Sanderson Mansnoozie, the Sandman. And of course the youngest of the Guardians, expect you, of course, Jack Frost.” Pitch points them all out to me as he tells me their names, which seems to irritate some of them.

     “So you are the so-called Guardians of Childhood?” I ask, looking around at them all with a frown, still refusing to move from Pitch’s embrace.

     “That’s us, sweetie,” the Tooth Fairy answers, holding out a hand to me. “The Man in the Moon told us about you being chosen and we have been looking for you ever since. If we had known that Pitch had kidnapped you, we would have been here much sooner and--“

     I cut her off before she can say anything else. “Kidnapped me?! How can it possibly be kidnapping, when I, as he said, went with him willingly? He offered answers for my questions and I accepted!”

     “Brainwashed, that one, huh?” Bunnymund states, making me round on him with a fiery glare.

     “Watch your tongue, Aussie,” I snap at him. “I am not brainwashed, okay? I went with him on my own free will, since your precious Man in the Moon didn’t tell me anything except that I had been chosen for something. Now, I have been with Pitch for little more than a week and he has told me everything about all of you, including himself. So please, just leave us in peace.”

     “How can you say that?” Jack Frost exclaims, landing on the roof a few meters away from us, glancing wearily at Obsidian and Onyx. “He’s the bad guy, you know!”

     Scoffing at his claim, I detangle myself from Pitch and move to stand in front of Jack. “Define a bad guy, please, Mr. Frost. Is it someone, who simply does, what he was destined for and constantly being beaten up for it? Or someone, who claim to protect children, yet leave one child alone for hundreds of years and then expect said child to simply jump for joy, when they bother paying attention and need something from the child?”

     No one says anything, so I go back to Pitch, who helps me onto Obsidian and places a light kiss to my knuckles in silent gratitude. But just before we can take off, the Sandman stops us and makes several pictures appear over his head with his sand.

     Apparently the others can decipher those pictures, because North gasps out in horror, “Sandy! We Guardians, Pitch is Boogeyman! His Nightmares--“

     “Are necessary,” I state, drawing confused looks to me. “Face is, you guys; Pitch and his Nightmares are vital for the children of the world to grow up properly. He teaches them bravery, whether you, they or he realize it. Without fear, how would anyone not get themselves killed? Fear is that little voice in the back of your head, telling you that maybe playing with a loaded gun isn’t such a good idea. And maybe you shouldn’t hijack a car and take it for a race during a storm.”

     I look around at them once more and as I lock eyes with the Sandman, he grins and gives me a thumbs-up. I nod in gratitude at his understanding and tell them one last thing as I prepare to take off with Pitch, “Once you take some time to think about this, give me a heads-up and maybe next time we can meet on friendlier premises.” Then Pitch and I take off for home.

     When we get back, Pitch grabs me in a tight hug, silently thanking me for my interference.

     “My grandpa always told me one thing, Pitch,” I tell him, making him look down at me in curiosity and I smile.

“Black is never just black~”