fic: Dark Horse (ficuary)

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: Dark Horse
Chapters: 1/1
Author:csi_sanders1129
Genre: Angst.
Ratings: T
Word Count: 1328
Pairings/Characters: Jack Frost, Pitch Black
Synopsis: In which no one has seen a trace of Pitch Black since his defeat, until Jack Frost happens upon a nightmare.
Comments: Written for Ficuary 2021, Prompt: Nightmare. First shot at ROTG fic. Could be gen or pre-slash. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

Life as a Guardian is better than Jack ever could have imagined.

He still gets to bring joy to the children of the world, providing them with snow days that lead to neighborhood wide snowball fights, icy hills to sled down, the perfect mix of snow to craft masterpieces – sometimes he even gets to join in on the fun, now that he maintains a steady level of belief; and, when the chill in the air coaxes them back to the warmth of their houses, it provides the perfect excuse for them to enjoy steaming mugs of hot cocoa, roast s'mores in the fireplace, and cuddle up with their families. There are occasional meetings to attend at the North Pole, and he pops in to the Burrow to annoy Bunny whenever he gets a chance. He happens upon Toothiana sometimes when she and her fairies are out working, and he sees Sandy working his magic most nights.

Tonight, though, he's alone. He's out in the woods, away from the waves of dreamsand as they spread across the world. After spending so many centuries on his own, sometimes he needs a break from his new life.

He's riding the wind, surfing through the snow-covered trees without a care in the world.

And that's when he sees it.

A flash of black.

It couldn't be, could it?

No one has seen any trace of the Boogeyman since they ruined his master plan just after Easter, and that was eight months ago. Jack tenses, scanning his surroundings – maybe he imagined it.

But, no, there it is again. The flash of black, corrupted dreamsand. A Nightmare.

The dark horse lets out an eerie, haunting neigh and lurks around the edges of Jack's vision, slowly moving in closer. "Pitch?" He calls out, sure that the man has to be around somewhere if his creature is about. "Whatever you're up to this time, you won't get away with it. Don't even try."

No answer comes.

But the Nightmare keeps advancing, and it's only when it's almost near enough to touch that Jack realizes just how small it is, it barely comes up to his shoulders. Less a nightmare and more a nightfoal. It's cautious and the fiery eyes Jack had seen on its counterparts during Pitch's attack are so dim they're barely illuminated at all. The creature doesn't radiate the same sense of fear and dread and hopelessness that the others had, either. This one is just… sad. Pathetic.

Jack can't help but reach out, and the nightmare creature gently nudges his hand.

"I don't know what you want me for," he tells the creature as he runs a hand over its fire-warm neck, but then he thinks of Pitch's word in Antarctica, 'what goes together better than cold and dark?' and he wonders if his magic drew this remnant of Pitch's to him. "Can I help?"

The Nightmare tosses its tiny head, gives a soft, pitiful nicker, and carefully grabs at the sleeve of his shirt, tugs him forward. It wants him to follow.

So, he does.

It leads him into the darkest parts of the forest, where the cold thrives in the shadows even without his icy influence. It leads him into a cave, through a maze of even darker tunnels, down into the depths of the earth, where it is darker still.

If this is a trap, he is very much in trouble, Jack thinks. So far from the other Guardians, so far from the watchful gaze of the Man in the Moon, as well. The little Nightmare stays close to him as they move through the seemingly endless darkness, the only light comes from the faint glow of its eyes. Jack keeps one hand on its withers, the other firmly on his staff. He wonders where they're going and why, but those are answers the dreamsand creature cannot give him.

Finally, they stop.

"Now what?" he asks of his companion. The horse nudges him forward into what he can only imagine is a cavernous stone room at the terminus of their descent. Now he moves cautiously, the same way the Nightmare had when it first approached him.

"Go. Away."

The voice erupts from somewhere in the darkness, echoing off the rock walls and reverberating so it sounds like it's coming from every direction all at once. Still, it's a voice Jack recognizes.

"Pitch?"

The Nightmare nickers again, circles around Jack like some sort of distressed puppy, urging him forward toward its creator. The last time they'd seen the Boogeyman, he'd been pursued by a herd of his own making, the beasts feeding on the fear he'd felt upon his defeat. What had they done to him?

"Did the Guardians tire of you already, Jack Frost?" Pitch taunts, pressing the only button he can.

Jack doesn't rise to the bait, though. He can hear the waver in Pitch's booming voice. "Your baby Nightmare here led me to you," he explains. "Do you need help?"

"You are not my guardian. I do not need anything from you," Pitch growls. There's a flash as Pitch strikes out at the little Nightmare, but Jack deflects the move with startling ease, and settles between the two, comforting the distressed dreamsand creature. It settles quickly enough, soothed by Jack's gentle touch and calm voice.

Now he just has to try to soothe its master.

"I can be your friend," Jack tries, though he's not quite sure what makes him say it. Maybe something else Pitch said in Antarctica that day stuck with him - 'All those years in the shadows, I thought no one else knows how it feels… You don't have to be alone, Jack.' Pitch lived the same life he had before the Guardians, invisible and alone. Jack knows how it feels, how lonely and isolating that can be. Maybe Pitch wouldn't be so bad if he weren't so alone. Maybe Jack could rein him in.

After all, there's a little bit of fear in so very many things. Most of it is perfectly mundane, too. It teaches the children to be wary of the real dangers they could face in the world, those little imagined ones – the nightmares, the scary stories, the rollercoasters, the darkness in their closets and under their beds. Every time a child sleds down a steep, snowy hill, Jack knows that there's always a little bit of fear right before the fun. There's a spark of doubt that the ice on a frozen lake will hold, a spark of fear when the ice starts to crack, a spark of pure terror when the cold water hits like a thousand little cuts – all fears Jack knows well enough. The world needs fear just as it needs all the rest of the things the Guardians protect – memories and hope and joy and dreams and fun.

"You don't have to be alone," he says, the same words Pitch had tried to convince him with.

There's a long beat of silence that suggests Pitch is considering the idea way more than Jack ever did.

His Nightmare friend nudges him forward again and this time he finds Pitch before him, and from what little Jack can see, he can tell the Boogeyman is in rough shape. It circles around them both now, urging them closer together and Pitch doesn't fight it, might not be strong enough to.

"You don't have to be alone," Jack says again, offering a hand, offering his friendship, offering whatever it takes to coax Pitch Black out of the darkness. "Trust me."

For a minute, Jack fears that Pitch won't be able to bring himself to accept his plea, but the little Nightmare gives its creator a hard shove forward and Pitch stumbles so much so that Jack reaches out on instinct to steady him. "Okay," he says, his voice quiet now, exhausted and weak, "okay." He takes Jack's hand, and gives in. "Help me. Please. I don't want to be alone."