Chapter 21

Pitch woke up to a painful feeling. He looked down at his left hand; there was a beam of sunlight hitting it. With a scream he jumped farther into the shade, waking Jack in the process. "S-stay out of my snow fort!" Jack shouted, surprised at being awaken so suddenly. The boy looked over to see Pitch leaning against the tree holding his hand. "What's wrong?"

"I got burned." The Nightmare King answered. He winced as the pain throbbed in his hand.

"Aw, poor baby." Jack said sincerely. Pitch glared. Jack scooted closer. "Lemme see."

"No!" The Boogeyman said. "I mean, I'm fine. I don't want you to touch it."

The frost elf huffed in frustration. "You are not fine. You're the boogeyman, and a beam of sunlight landed on your hand. Now let me fix it!" He grabbed Pitch's hand by force, making sure not to touch the burn next to his thumb. The guardian inspected the burn, it looked painful. "Don't worry, I can make it feel better."

"Oh really? How?" Pitch said, annoyed.

"Just shut up and watch." Jack brought Pitch's hand to his face and kissed the wound. Pitch winced at first and then sighed with relief. Wondering what Jack did, he looked down to see ice on the burn. Jack pulled away and smiled. "Told you so. You're lucky we fell asleep under this willow tree otherwise you'd be burned all over."

Pitch smirked. "And then you'd have to kiss me all over." Jack laughed before lightly punching Pitch in the arm. The man chuckled before the sting began to come back, and he grimaced. "Damn, I hate the sun." The snow spirit grabbed his hand again and kissed it multiple times causing Pitch to moan in pleasure.

"Still hurt?"

"No." Pitch laughed slightly. "I can't feel my hand, it's completely numb."

"Numb and cold is better than painful and burning, right?"

"Much better." He kissed Jack repeatedly. "I need to leave here, the shade is lessening."

Jack hugged Pitch tightly. "Bye Pitch." The Nightmare King kissed Jack's forehead.

"Goodbye Frost." The boy let go and Pitch disappeared in the shadows. Jack grabbed his staff and stretched before flying into the air.

Jack flew to Burgess and towards Jamie's house. He looked in through the window to see Jamie watching TV. The guardian knocked on the window. Jamie looked over and smiled. "Jack!" He ran over and opened the window and Jack flew in. The child closed the window and hugged Jack. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Same here," Jack grinned. "Although I was a little surprised to see you inside."

"It's too cold to go out today."

"Oops, sorry. I'll tone it down a bit." They both sat down on the floor in front of the television. "What're you watching?"

"It's this cool show about myths and legends! They have like real videos of aliens and stuff!"

"Sounds cool." The commercials ended and the show came back on. The new segment was about a supposed alien sighting.

A tall, thin creature stepped into view from behind a large tree in a backyard in California. "Oh my gosh did you see that?! That was a real alien! Do you think they come in peace?"

Jack giggled. "Well they better or me and other Guardians are going to have come in and take care of it."

Jamie's eyes lit up. "That would be so cool! I hope they don't come in peace now!" The guardian laughed loudly.

"I hope they do, I'd rather not fight an alien. He might shoot me with lasers!" Jack joked, making Jamie chuckle. "Or grab me with his giant tentacles!" He shouted grabbing Jamie and tickling him.

Jamie laughed and tried to get out of the frost elf's grip. "Ah, no Jack! I give, I give!" He was released and the two finished the show. Jamie found himself yawning and growing tired. He had stayed up very late reading his new book, and couldn't keep his eyes open. He fell asleep on the floor and Jack picked him up, placed him on the couch and covered him with a blanket. He opened the door and flew away.

Jack flew around for awhile, simply wanting to explore, when he stumbled upon a Native American shop in New Mexico. He went inside and was surprised at all he saw. There were beautiful dream catchers hanging on the walls and ceiling, fireworks, posters of famous chiefs, native baby girl dolls, and so much more. "How cool," Jack thought aloud as he accidentally bumped into a dream catcher while floating around.

A little blonde girl looked up at Jack and smiled. "Jack Frost!"

He smiled and waved. "Hey!" He flew over to her and blew a snowflake in her face. She giggled with delight.

"Hanna," her mother called, "it's time to get going!" She said goodbye and ran to catch up with her parents. Jack continued to fly around the shop, and stopped when he saw a woman making a dream catcher bracelet. She was teaching a small group of people how to make one step by step. Jack beamed thinking of a brilliant idea. He grabbed some of the materials and started working.

Once he finished making it, he put it in a small, light blue box and put a dark blue bow on it. He shoved the box in his sweatshirt pocket and flew away.

It was almost sundown when Jack arrived at Pitch's lair. "Pitch! Pitch! Pitch! Pitch!"

He found Pitch laying in bed while reading. "Oh, hello Jack." He was barely able to finish his sentence before Jack ran up and kissed him. "Well I'm happy to see you too."

"I have something for you!" Jack said happily.

"Really?" Pitch asked, surprise obvious in his voice. Jack placed the box in Pitch's hand and encouraged him to open it. The Nightmare King opened the small box and in it was a royal blue dream catcher bracelet. Pitch didn't know what to say. "Jack, what is it?"

"It's a dream catcher, and it's blue so you'll finally be wearing a different color. I made it."

"You made this?" Pitch seemed shocked as he held the bracelet in his hand. Jack nodded happily. "That's so sweet of you, but why did you do this for me?"

"Well I was thinking about what happened after the children started believing again, and I remember it being horrifying to watch." Pitch stiffened at the memory. "I didn't want that to happen again, so I made you this in case you get scared again. If you do, this will keep the nightmares away so they can't hurt you." Jack snapped the clasp around Pitch's right wrist and although still in shock, he caressed the bracelet fondly.

He looked at Jack, and the boy could have sworn his eyes were glossy. The Nightmare King wrapped his arms around Jack and pulled him as close to himself as possible. He hid his face in the snow spirit's shoulder. Jack ran his fingers through the man's hair. "Thank you." Jack nodded and rubbed the boogeyman's back. "T-thank you, Jack." His voice sounded shaky. They stayed hugging for a while before Pitch pulled away and smiled at Jack.

"What?" The guardian asked.

"You made me a gift." Pitch said bewildered and joyful.

"Well, yeah."

"You're not even questioning it." Jack nodded as if that was an obvious thing to be certain about. "God, I love you." Pitch pinned Jack down on the bed and kissed him repeatedly. The boy moaned in pleasure and managed to free his arms to grab onto Pitch.

The Nightmare King lifted Jack's sweatshirt up to his neck and rubbed his bare chest. They laid together until the idea to go out and enjoy the beautiful starry night entered their minds. They left Pitch's lair and took off into the night; one riding the winds, and the other on horseback. They had no care in the world, and Jack didn't even think to worry about being seen by the other Guardians.

To be continued.