Death and Darkness.

Ch. 1

A/N~ Hahaha…so now I'm filling…five? Six? Yeah, about six prompts. Where did I put that pistol? XD Kidding! But anyways, this can be read on the KINKmeme, but this is the edited version, and therefore the better version. I am so ashamed of all the grammer errors and lack the overuse of various words in the original. Note to self – don't write sh** when hoped up on allergy pills. It does stuff to you. Seriously.

This is a fill from DreamWidth obviously from the RotG KINKmeme. Please enjoy!

WARNING! For OC on Canon character romance. Rating might go up.

Pairing: Pitch/Death (Male OC)

Genre: Humor, romance.

Rating: T

~S~

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Jack surveyed the area he found himself in. A chilly sigh left his lips as he mentally checked off the area of Canada he had landed in. In under an hour, he had visited over fifty locations of the north-eastern hemisphere, and still, no sign of what he was looking for.

The winter sprite frowned down at the dark, sleeping town of Toronto before him. Never did Jack once think he would get so bored with extended traveling. Though he marked the blandness of it up to having to speed through all these places, rather than enjoy them at leisure. Sighing again, he took off into the wind to continue his search.

Not even an hour ago, maybe a few minutes before he started his search, he and the other Guardians had been summoned by North for a meeting. At first everyone thought it was just a routine meeting to disclose any problems or ideas they may want to discuss; it wasn't rare for them to exchange ideas for their work or the holidays. But with it being so close to the Christmas season, they were a bit surprised by his summoning; the man usually shut himself away to work during the remaining three months to Christmas – it was September now.

When they got there and North appeared, he asked them an odd question…

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"Has anyone seen or noticed any activity from Pitch lately?" he asked the assembled spirits.

A few odd, questioning looks were given by the others, but they answered none the less. All gave the same answer; no one had seen Pitch since his defeat last Easter – almost six months ago. This earned a disturbed, if not worried, frown from North. All but Jack seemed to automatically know what was going on, and it both confused and annoyed the winter spirit. Bunny put on an intense scowl before he spoke.

"He's not needed now." He said.

"We do not know this Bunny. You yourself know how important our balance is." North retorted.

"Uh…" Jack decided to break in before an argument could escalate, "No meaning to break in here, but uh, new guy and all. What's going on?"

"Is Pitch causing trouble again? So soon?" Tooth added, though the question was half-hearted.

Sandy formed a few images over his head, all of which contained a Moon, an image of Pitch himself, and a question mark. North nodded to Sandy.

"Yes, Man in Moon has asked me about Pitch, but like you, I have not seen him – far too busy with Christmas." He grunted. Again, Bunny frowned, but seemed to gain a proverbial leash around his neck at the mention of Manny.

"We still don't need to-"

"Manny has asked of me, that if none of you have seen him, to have us search for him…" North interrupted with a grim tone.

"What!? But why?" Jack exclaimed.

Sandy formed the image of a Berg Scale. On one side, it featured him and the other Guardians standing on the platform, and on the other stood Pitch. The sand Pitch suddenly vanished, and the scale tipped onto he Guardians' side.

Jack frowned at this, "I don't understand…"

"He means that without Pitch, without fear, the balance of our world goes out of order." Tooth explained, her own realization dawning.

"Which means a whole lot of chaos for us, and one very pissed off Spirit of Balance on our hands…" Bunny added gruffly.

"Spirit of bal-?"

"Don't ask…" Bunny cut Jack off, shuddering at the memory of their last encounter with Lady Justice…*

North cleared his throat, "Anyways, bearing this in mind, we must see if Pitch is still doing his job. And if he is…well, let him do it, but at an agreeable pace…"

"So wait…" Jack cut in, "We're basically just going to let that creep give kids nightmares? After all we did? I thought he was the bad guy!"

"We stepped in that one time because Pitch had completely gone overboard, Jack," Tooth said, "Too much fear is bad for the world, but too little of it leads to recklessness and injury."

"Trust us mate, as much as I don't like the bloke, we've seen what happens to the world when fear is 'taking a vacation'…" Bunny's ears pinned back, a certain Spirit of Balance once again coming to mind.

"What a mess…" Tooth groaned, her feathers fluffing.

Sandy seemed to take on a suddenly exasperated look.

"But in the end we all managed to convince Pitch at the time to start spreading fear again."

"After he had us literally beg for it, the bloody sod…"

"Which brings us back to predicament," North concluded, "We must find Pitch, and see if he is continuing his spreading of fears."

"And if he's not…?" Jack asked, uncertain. North shrugged.

"Eh, I bring sack. Sack can be very convincing, da?" The Spirit of Wonder winked over at Jack mischievously…

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Which brought Jack back to the present, flying over state after state to try and catch even a glimpse of Pitch himself, or a Nightmare. So far, no luck on either, and Jack could only hope the others were having better luck then he was. They had checked the fear spirit's lair at first for obvious reasons, but he hadn't been there. Or if he had, he was ignoring them and hiding in one of the shadows. North commented on how Pitch had taken a similar 'sulk' the last time they beat him down – the Nightmare King had then at the time hidden himself away in the catacombs of France. It had taken them weeks to find him…

'This better not take weeks…' Jack thought disdainfully.

Seeing a familiar area as he coasted over Pennsylvania, Jack descended into his favorite town of Burgess. It was still late, so there was pretty much no chance of finding some kids to coax into a snowball fight. But it wasn't like he had anywhere else to search now; North had only told him to check the north-east hemisphere while the others took to the south and west.

Settling down onto a familiar statue in the middle of the park, Jack twirled his staff and surveyed the town. The chill of the upcoming autumn gave the night air a crisp, spiced scent. Leaves were already turning color and piled up on lawns and yards. It was only mid-September, yet there were already Halloween decorations sparsely set up around houses and buildings. Jack grinned to himself, excitement spreading through him. This would be his first Halloween with believers. Maybe he could go trick-or-treating with Jamie and get in on some candy.

Jack swung his staff with a grin. His mood now much higher, he planned to spread some late frost around the neighborhood. Hallow wouldn't mind – the Halloween spirit was about as laid back as Jack, and they both got along rather well, despite the dark spirit's shy and weary personality.*

The frost sprite was just about to get started, but paused when a strange shadow caught the corner of his eye. He swiftly turned, but found whatever it was causing the dark shape gone. He blinked and rubbed his eyes.

"Must be getting tired…" he muttered.

Removing his hand, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he caught a face full of a certain pudgy gold Guardian.

"JEEZ! Sandy, I know it's close to Halloween, but don't scare me like that. I could have frozen you!" he exclaimed.

Sandy held up his hands and formed an olive branch over his head, though he was grinning mischievously. Jack rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop from grinning at the other. Now assured Jack was calm, Sandy formed a question mark over his head, then pointed to Jack and his eyes.

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing," Jack waved a hand dismissively, "I just thought I saw something. It was nothing probably, I always get a bit tired before fall fully sets in and-"

A tiny gold hand suddenly pressed against his mouth and he was just as suddenly yanked against a grainy chest – wow Sandy was surprisingly strong – before being hauled behind the statue. Jack fought off drowsiness as some of Sandy's sand got into his eyes, and firmly tugged his head back.

"Sandy, what the heck are you-?"

Sandy placed a finger to his lips and made an urgent shushing gesture to Jack. He pointed discreetly to the other side of the statue and urged him to stay quiet.

Frowning, Jack got on his knees and followed Sandy as the two peaked around the statue. At first Jack didn't see anything, but after a moment of staring, he saw something – no, someone – emerge from the shadow of a house.

Pitch Black stood in all his dark, regal glory on the sidewalk, remnants of Nightmare sand flanking him. But he didn't seem…quite right. His skin was paler, almost an off-white shade as opposed to its usual light grey. And his posture was unsteady and strained, as if he was fighting to keep a straight and dignified position. Dark shadows were visible under his sunken eyes, a sure sign of lack of sleep. The shade sighed, shoulders sagging, and ran spidery fingers through his ebony locks. He was the very picture of weariness and exhaustion.

Wow, was all Jack could think, the guy looked like he could use a nap…

"So he's been here, huh? Well, that's great I guess? We can go back and tell the others that-"

Again, Sandy shushed Jack, causing the sprite to frown at him. He didn't exactly like being quiet, or told to be quiet. Granted, he knew it probably wouldn't be a good idea to be belting out sopranos at the moment, but he figured he could at least whisper…

Sandy pointed back to Pitch, his own brow creased from his urgency towards Jack. He sighed.

"What? It's just Pitch," he said, looking back up, "We can go back now and…"

Jack did a double take, blue eyes wide.

Pitch wasn't alone.

The shade straightened his robes and turned down into an alleyway. But not even a moment later, another figure appeared from the shade of a skeletal tree. This one was harder to distinguish, as he(?) wore a long, hooded black cloak. The hood was drawn up, the cape wrapped and closed around the tall figure's form, giving it a shapeless appearance. The only other significant feature to take note of on the figure was the single wispy lock of long white hair that fell out of the hood from a breeze. At first glance, one would compare it to Jack's hair color, but to Jack, it seemed more…spectral…

The shapeless being paused a moment on the very spot Pitch once stood. He just stood there for an unknown number of seconds. A beat later, he started walking again – down the same alleyway Pitch had vanished in.

The silence around Jack and Sandy was deafening. It was thick and heavy enough to cut with a knife, and Jack momentarily contemplated seeing if he could probe the air with an icicle and test for any resistance. But he discarded the thought – it was a stupid idea to do in front of others – and instead looked down at Sandy.

"Hey Sandy, what was that about? Who was that other guy?" Jack asked the shorter spirit.

Sandy said – or rather showed – nothing. Actually, he seemed to be…was Sandy shaking? Odd, Jack's never known Sandy to ever be cold. Could he ever get cold? And the shade of gold he now was…it seemed paler, almost flushed to a more pastel yellow.

"Uh…" he tried, poking the Sandman's shoulder, "Sandy…?"

Without warning, the Sandman swiftly turned, grabbed the hood of Jack's hoodie, hauled him onto a Dreamsand cloud, and bolted off like the devil himself was chasing him. Jack lay on the glittering cloud staring up in wide eyed shock at the night sky. But as the blue-black night slowly started shifting into dawn a few minutes later, he pouted and growled to himself.

He was getting a bit fed up with people just whisking him away to their hearts content…

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A/N~ So I think this would be my first OC/Canon character fic? Huh, wow, it is! And I can actually see it WORKING! How bizarre is that? (Note – Sumi is almost an anti-OC/Canon slasher, but makes exceptions every once in a blue moon).

Hope you all enjoyed!

* Lady Justice is a figurehead and representation of justice and balance. She supposedly carries a Berg Scale which symbolizes balance. A very minor OC inspired by the original 'Lady Justice'. Supposedly the Guardians had an earlier encounter with her the last time they fought Pitch, which resulted in the Nightmare King into stopping all forms of fear. Rumor has it he took a 'vacation' just to spite them. She is EXTREMELY strict and disciplinary.

* Another minor OC of mine, Hal O. Ween, or nicknamed by many as 'Hallow', 'Sleepy Hallow', or 'Hal' is a fire-elemental spirit that personifies the holiday of Halloween. Despite what he represents, he is a shy sort of spirit that constantly carries an air of sleepiness, not unlike Sandy. He has the physical appearance of one very close to Jack's age - around 18 to 19 - though he is significantly older than Jack.

I OWN ALL OCs IN THIS FIC!

~S~