Cupid looked up from his position in the tree in annoyance as his arrow missed his target due to a certain winter spirit's sudden appearance.

"Damn," he cursed. That had been the perfect moment.

"Hey, you shouldn't use that kind of language!" The, very dead, winter spirit reprimanded.

Irritated pink eyes turned to the Guardian of Fun, "Do I look like a Guardian to you?" He wasn't a protector of children, had no relation with them besides his actions creating then, and therefore didn't really care about them.

The ancient god glanced at the youngest of their brood, "What do you want?" Spirits associated with childhood didn't usually interact with more adult spirits, such as love or war, unless it had to do with their domain, such as Aster and Spring's relationship.

Jack fidgeted uncomfortably underneath the unimpressed gaze, and stumbled over the next few words, ending in an incomprehensible jumble.

Cupid gave him an unamused glance. This was the spirit that North had joked would overtake his record of mischief? Cupid doubted it. From what he had gathered, Frost's type of mischief was more harmless fun and a grab for attention. His type of amusement however induced chaos. There was a reason that even the gods feared him.

Jack coughed sheepishly. It was different, being in the presence of a god, even if it wasn't one of the Olympians. He could feel the aura of power around Cupid, and it was almost stifling, urging him to kneel, to beg, to tremble in face of the difference between them. Not even Pitch had had such an aura. He vaguely remembered that the gods could make themselves visible at will as well.

"Well?" Pink eyes narrowed in warning. Jack, despite his fear, felt a bit irritated but he did nothing. Gods, according to Bunny, were arrogant and impatient. Mere spirits such as them couldn't afford their wrath.

"Well, I wanted to-uh, talk about -um, love," Jack finished lamely. Cupid shot him a disbelieving look and he flushed.

"And what brought this on?" Cupid asked slowly. He had a hard time believing that a spirit as childish as the Guardian of Fun would want to talk about something as complex and incomprehensible as love.

"Uh, well, North mentioned that Pitch mentioned it once, and I was wondering about that," Jack explained nervously. Please don't turn me into a dove, please don't turn me into a dove

"And what exactly did the Spirit of Wonder say about the Spirit of Fear?" Cupid raised an eyebrow. The Boogeyman was hardly a concern, but Pitch Black, The Nightmare King, well his matters were Cupid's business and his alone.

"Uh, how is Pitch," Jack waved his arms while attempting to search for the word.

"Able to love?" Cupid asked.

Jack nodded. "Yeah. Bunny mentioned how Mother Earth is his daughter and, well, that means he has to be able to love right?"

"Frost, you do know that's Familial Love and that I'm the Spirit of Desire, right?" He was a god of love, but not Love.

Jack flushed, "Yeah, but to get a daughter, he had to have loved someone enough to have a kid, right?"

Cupid frowned. The logic was flawed, but in this case, not wrong. "The Nightmare King did love a woman," he answered vaguely. If Frost didn't note the difference in address that wasn't his concern.

"But how?" The winter spirit looked genuinely frustrated.

Cupid smiled, and the sight made Jack take a step back warily. It wasn't a nice smile. It was the kind of smile smiled before delivering bad news for the satisfaction of a dismayed reaction. There was a touch of anger in his smile though as well.

"How was Pitch Black, the Bringer of Fear, able to love someone?" Cupid finished. Jack nodded.

Cupid didn't answer immediately. The question had more substance than it first appeared. The Boogeyman, for all his enjoyment of terror, was a coward. He could never put another above himself. The Nightmare King, however, was a different matter.

He was far more complex than the pale shell that the Guardians faced. His mother knew it more intimately, but he was a god of love as well, and he could feel the chaos in the spirit's heart. There was darkness there, enough that Cupid could believe that that incarnation of Pitch Black had once commanded, and held, the fear of Tartarus. And yet, there was a small ounce of light, a hint that Kozmotis Pitchiner wasn't dead.

Cupid snorted, "I fell in love,"

"Yeah, but you're you. The god of love, and all that," Jack waved his arm.

Cupid barked out a laugh, "You young spirits are so pampered. No threats, no chaos, no fear… you have no idea what I was like back then," He crossed his arms.

"There was a reason that the King of the Gods feared me, Winter Sprite," he had revelled in chaos, and Zeus, the paranoid power-hungry fool that he was, was wary of any threats to his power.

The paltry little tricks that Frost managed was nothing compared to the tumult that Cupid had wrecked before he had married. The other nature spirits were never more than exasperated with Frost's antics. And they weren't cruel enough to bring small mishaps before Demeter.

"Because Love is far more complicated than you can imagine, little spirit," not even he, the god of love could truly comprehend Love. It was beyond reason or logic.

"Love," he moved closer, close enough to force the Winter Spirit to back up. "Means placing someone else above yourself. It means placing their happiness, their safety, their life, before yours,"

Pink locked on to azure. "It means you no longer live for yourself,"

He moved back, "At least that is Love; love is far less complicated. Very few experience Love. That is why there are epics and tales written about it,though they often add aspects of love into Love"

"Um, what's the difference? It's the same word," Jack asked in puzzelent. Cupid sighed. Explaining love to Jack was like explaining the Love to a child, literally.

"There is a difference big enough that Love," he emphasized the word, "is something that even I can not comprehend. The other, love," he sniffed, "Is the fuzzy, warm feeling," Oh, how he hated that description.

He blamed Apollo. That idiotic sun god had been foolish enough to use it to describe the feeling one of his latest conquests gave him, and the terms had stuck… for millenia.

Frost just stared stupidly back. Cupid sighed.

"Frost, Love changes people. People like the Nightmare King would destroy worlds, destroy themselves, for the one they love,"

That seemed to help the boy understand something, if his wide eyes were anything to go by. He should have just done this from the beginning. He paused, then looking curious, asked a question that made the god freeze.

"So who does Pitch love?" A simple question with a complex answer. Zeus had forbidden his mother or him to say anything about the matter, especially this, in fear of a strong reaction. The shell was easy to handle. The Nightmare King at full strength, the Lord of Chaos, was another matter entirely.

"She's dead," was his sole response. The bluntness would shock the Winter Sprite enough not to pursue the topic. For all his mischief, and despite his appearance, Jack Frost was really only an overgrown child. He wouldn't talk about death.

Zeus had forbidden them to even speak her name. Celeste. Before he had met Psyche he had wondered what sort of woman could have gained the love of the Nightmare King. Afterwards, he had laughed, because Love never asked. It just came to be, and nobody, not even a god could stop it.

Perhaps the reason why Cupid himself was so sensitive to the topic was the similarity to his own love. It didn't matter though. No one, not even Hades could bring back the dead.

Hello guys. I came across this in my collection one day, and I was like 'ok, it looks cool. Why not upload it?' It's based more on the books than the movie, but I've always wondered. We know about Pitch's daughter, but we know literally nothing about Pitch's wife besides how she died. I've always been fascinated with our dear Lady Pitch Black, and so here's a little hint of that.