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The two stood together in the palace for a long time, looking at eachother both with opposite emotions to the other. Ironically, it was Pitch who looked gentle - His expression was a calm and relaxed one, even though his body language said otherwise. His fingers fidgeted steadily behind his back, showing a small indication of nerves. His toes kept curling upwards, she couldn't see them, but from the small leather indents that kept coming from the top of his shoes, it was an easy thing to spot. That also meant he was feeling in an awkward position, but surely that couldn't be right. Surely it should of been Tooth who was feeling the awkwardness of the situation.

Tooth's expression was more of a shocked than gentle feature. So many thoughts ran through her mind, there were many reasons why Pitch could of turned up here today at her palace.. But for help? No... No, no, no, no, no.. This was a trick. It had to be. What could Pitch possibly need from her? It was all to strange for Pitch to be acting like this, what could be wrong with him? Whatever it was, she wouldn't help him until she got a straight answer. Tooth simply arched a suspicious eyebrow at him and folded her arms. She knew he thought she was the weakest of the Guardians, but she could prove him wrong..

'Help?' Nothing more than a put-on laugh came out, 'Why would you want help from a Guardian? You hate us.' If she didn't know him any better, she would of said he seemed harmless.

'Hate is a strong word, Toothiana. One that I never used when refering to you or the others.' Now there was a turn of events. For one, he had never called her by her full name before, and then he never really had said he hated them before. This made her think, she chose her next words carefully. He was playing a tricky game and she was determined to win.

'No, no of course not..' She started, lifting her shoulders slightly and moving her eyes down to the floor, 'You just tried to kill us instead.'

'I never intened to kill you.'

'And I'm supposed to believe that, why?'

'Because I came here...' His words weren't angry, they were shaky if anything. There was no hint of revenge in his eyes, which made him appear less as a threat. The sentences he said, didn't seem to make sense however, no matter how many times she repeated them in her head. It was almost like he had somehow intruded into her mind just by simply looking her in the eyes. Looking at him now. There was something about him. What was it? Why did she trust him? She couldn't let herself break yet, there was to much she wanted to know first.

'I don't follow..' She muttered simply, what else could she have said to those watery eyes?

'Look it doesn't matter..' He started, taking a step closer to her, stumbling slightly when his left leg was lifted from the ground, 'I know you have no reason to trust me, I understand that. All I want, is answers. And if you can't give them to me.. I'm better off dead..'

She felt her heart drop into her stomach. Could this really be the man they had fought just a few weeks before? This wasn't the Pitch she knew, something had happened. He couldn't be playing a trick, there was only sadness clear in his eyes. She landed down onto her feet, she never really stood on the ground before, but this time was different.

'You're really not kidding, are you?'

He sighed and shook his head, as he looked down however, she finally got a good view of the side of his neck. Across the usual gray skin, he had small bite marks, only just visible. They were cut deeply into his neck, small specks of dried blood circled around them, making them appear bigger than they actually were. Without thinking, she rushed over to his side, observing them more closely. Her eyes scanned every inch of his neck and, to her dismay, found several more marks along the back.

'What happened to you?' She mumbled under her breath, her voice shaking with obvious worry for the older spirit. His eyes followed her curiously, he couldn't believe that after all those years of being alone and unwanted.. Someone, even one of his largest enemies, still cared about him. He found himself trembling, did he really want to explain what had become of their biggest threat after his ghastly defeat? Well, he had nothing to lose now..

'The... Fearlings turned on me..' He stuttered, 'I was powerless to them, I couldn't stop their attacks..' Her heart melted, they really had sent him into his own personal hell. This was her fault, and the other Guardians. And it was her job to help him, to help him become Pitch Black once more. Besides, even if he did decide to go back to his evil schemes and plans to destroy them, it was better than him lying alone in unbearable agony for another thousand years... Right?

She decided not to dwell on it; their was an injured man in her home who needed her help, and she was determined to give it to him. Before he could explain anymore of recent events, she had disappeared, in a flurry of wings, down the corridors of the palace and up to her own personal room. For five minutes she rumaged through each of the draws, trying to find that one little thing that she knew he needed. Her hands were moving quickly as her eyes hovered over each item in the drawers. She only stopped when something sharp caught her finger with a small tingling pain, she brought her now cut finger up to her face, wiping away the small drop of blood that the possession had caused. Getting back to the matter in hand, she returned her attention to the now empty draws, empty that is, except for the small golden jeweled box that sat directly in the middle.

As carefully as she could, she scooped the box up with her cupped hands, her reflection beeming of the pollished gold clearly. It was not very big; maybe the same size as one of her many mini fairies... But the item inside it, in her opinion, held much more value than the actuall box itself.

'Tooth?' His voice crept softly into her ears, she should of really explained where she was going before she shot off to her room.. She'd left the poor man standing alone in her own palace, where her fairies would soon be aware of his presence, which wouldn't end to well..

'Hang on, I'll be with you in a moment!' She called back, trying to sound as calm as possible. She turned back to the trinket that rested in her hands, and gave out a long shaky sigh. She hadn't opened this since the fight, and was determined to never open it again. The only reason she had ever kept it was because, it was still a tooth; she still had to do her job. She traced her hand down the lock on the front, a click emnating from somewhere inside the box. It started to open itself up slowly, and inside, lay a single white tooth, which rested ontop of a purple velvet cushion. She looked at it for a few moments, giggling to herself, because the very idea that Pitch brushed his teeth seemed almost funny to her... She mentally kicked herself, what was she doing?

With the tooth in hand, she hurriedly raced back to the man who now stood rather anxiously, looking up at her mini faeries with a worried look. She noticed a few of them attempt to punch him in the jaw when they went past, the others flying above his head ranting, or chirping, abuse at him from every direction. Tooth narrowed her eyes slightly and rused over quickly, scowling at the flying faeries.

'Is that anyway to treat out guest girls?!' She shouted suddenly, putting her free hand on her hip and looking at them disbelievingly. Pitch was the one who seemed most shocked at her words if anything, he had never expected to be labelled 'safe to be around', let alone a guest.. But he still followed suite. Out of the hovering crowd of faeries, the smallest of them all came out and blinked, looking up at Tooth with an innocent face. She couldn't mistake those two violet and blue eyes for any of her faeries. Babytooth, was the first one to speak up from the group.

''But Tooth, he tried to kill us..'' She chirped, looking at her with a worried and nervous expression, wringing her tiny hands together, ''He locked us in a cage for days and stole all the teeth!''

That was very true, maybe they'd need more convincing than she thought.. But she didn't have time now, hopefully they would understand if she left them in suspense for a little while longer..

'Look girls, I know this looks bad.. But I don't have time to explain everything right now, so can you just leave us alone for a while and I promise I will tell you everything later?' She looked up at them pleadingly, clasping her hands together in a prayer like way. The other faeries apart from Babytooth all left, giving low growls at the new man to the palace. Babytooth however, gave Pitch a small smile and nodded at Tooth, before happily flying off to return to her duties. Tooth sighed in relief and turned back to Pitch with an apologetic look,

'Sorry about that, but they did go through quite a terrifying ordeal...' She tried not to sound to harsh with her words, the least he needed right now was more shouting. And she fully appreciated that.

'No..' He started, smiling weakly and raising a hand as if to stop her from continuing, 'They have every right to be mad, I understand that what I did wasn't... Isn't, forgivable...' He stopped at that, deciding it was better off to leave past events behind. She smiled up at him happily, realizing now that he truly had changed. She looked down again at the box in her hands that held the tooth she had knocked from his jaw a few weeks ago, Tooth could only smile at it before placing it down on a surface, and turning back to him.

'Now, before I give you your memories...' She started, edging towards him again.

'How did you - ?'

'Oh please.. What else would you of come to me for?' She smiled, noting to herself how quickly his own expression had changed from confused to delighted, before he raised another hand and gestured for her to continue. 'Anyway, before I give you your memories, if you wouldn't mind.. I would like to take a look at you injuries, it thats alright?' He looked up at her with furrowed brows, he wasn't expecting her to say that. He quickly shook his head however, seemingly wanting to avoid the subject.

'I'm fine.. Really, its nothing..' He tugged down at the sleeves of his robe, covering up something red along his wrist. She sighed and folded her arms.

'Pitch, don't try to cover it up!' She flew up to him so they were face to face, staring at him sternly in the eyes, 'I'm trusting you, so I'd appreciate it if you trusted me!' He smirked slightly.

'If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't of come to you for help, would I?' He teased, smiling but with a pained look in his eyes, like he was truly in unbearable agony. She poked him in the shoulder gently and looked at him.

'Let me have a look then!' She half shouted, half pleaded, he kept a firm gaze with her for a long time, before finally sighing and lifting the sleeve of his robe up, clearly beaten. She took his arm gently in her hands, examining the grayish skin carefully. There were many black bruises up his arm, his wrists covered in deep bites and gashes.. She had never seen him look so.. Vulnerable.. The Fearlings must of really gotten out of hand for him, which meant that this was there fault. He looked at her, noticing the worry in her eyes, and immediatley knew why.

'You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened to me...' He started, looking at the marks himself and grimacing slightly, 'I deserve each and every one of these scars..'

'Don't say that!' She snapped, looking up at him with a confused look, 'No one deserves this...' He sighed sadly, watching her curiously as she looked him up and down, trying to find every single mark on him. She suddenly looked up at him with tears in her eyes, and he couldn't help but think it was something that he had said or done.

'Tooth?' He began, but was cut off when he suddenly found himself being pulled into her arms, hugging him tightly. He was confused by her sudden gesture, but never the less, hugged her back all the same. She quickly pulled back again, getting a firm grip on herself and called for Babytooth, who came speeding down the palace and arrived at her side, salluting her with a tiny chirp. Tooth whispered something in the smaller faeries ear, which caused her to give an anxious look over to Pitch, before quickly nodding again and zooming off back down the other end of the palace. She turned to Pitch again, looking apologetical and then back to stern again, pointing a finger at him.

'Next time your injured like this, you come to me straight away, alright?!' She shouted, pulling him in for another hug again as tears fell silently down her face. He couldn't help but smile at her, he didn't understand why she was showing him as much compassion as she was.. But he was entirely grateful for it.. He looked up at her and smiled warmly, and nodded slowly.

'I promise..' He smiled, looking at her straight in the eyes. She smiled back and they shared a long comfortable silence gazing into eachothers eyes dreamily, still half in an embrace. They lost track of how long they had stayed like that, but were soon pulled back into reality by a smug looking Babytooth, who now held up a medical kit in both hands. Tooth giggled quietly at her mini faerie before going over and assisting her with the kit, before the two tooth faeries knelt down next to the Nightmare King, and began to take care of him..

...

OMG I'M SO SORRY! Its been like over a month and I haven't written anything!
I swear, I really haven't had the time to, we have just started a bunch load of coursework at school and its SUCH A PAIN IN THE... Well, you understand...

God, you guys must hate me so much! I'm really sorry!
I promise there will be more weekly updates, don't give up on me yet!

On another note, right, about this chapter... If you can pick it out there is some actuall gentle flirting between the both and they also have a slight romantic connection - BUT they don't know it yet! -

Anyhoo, another apology because I didn't spell check this one either! AGHAGHAAHAHGA.. But I hope it was long enough for you because I just wasn't sure...

I'll stop talking now, see you SOON. I promise! _