His Nightmare Queen (Pitch Black x Reader)

40: Reality

A couple heavy topics in here so this is your warning. Been honestly terrified of releasing these last few chapters with lack of popularity of certain tropes, but am trying hard to stick to keeping the plot moving :’)

This may have been the first time Pitch was not grumbling to himself beside you at how unpleasant it was to be present at the Guardians’ headquarters. After your sleepless night of tossing and turning in worry of what the first Monday after Easter would be bringing you from a long weekend, both he and you were already standing in the living quarters of the workshop alongside the others. The dark circles under your eyes from the ongoing lack of rest paired with the returned throb in your head were threatening to dizzy you enough to turn your stomach. Each time you refused a plate of food, you hungered for what you feared you would not be able to hold down. Even after last night’s little dispute in the meadow, you remained at Pitch’s side with his arm linked at the elbow with yours. It seemed that more than just the small celebration of Easter’s success with the Guardians would be occurring this afternoon.

Bunnymund was the first to lock eyes with you, noticing your unease from across the room as he turned to face your front. When he raised a brow at you, you instantly knew what he was silently wondering. You nodded, confirming that his senses from this past weekend were correct. To your right, when Pitch was not looking, the rabbit then cast a glance at him and back at you before lifting both brows. You nodded again to this, wordlessly showing that you had in fact told the Nightmare King about this new knowledge of the child between him and you. The moment that Pitch did look back toward the rabbit, the two of them exchanged glares that you noticed but did not have enough time to read into.

Pitch then leaned into you, bending down to the side to mutter in your ear something that your focus was too unsteady to listen to. You inferred though that this may have been his suggestion to get on with spilling your little secret. Maybe he didn’t word it exactly like that, but you certainly would not be able to hide it for very long regardless. You did not respond to him. It was Bunnymund’s day, not yours. The rest of the Guardians were so busy going around congratulating him for the thousands of completed egg hunts yesterday that you felt out of place with the idea of announcing your own personal matter.

Then again, Bunny must have noticed as well. The next time you and him caught one another’s attention, he mouthed to you with furrowed brows from the opposite end of the room the question of if you wanted to tell everyone else. You froze for a second before looking all around at the rest of the Guardians spread about. Jack was mid-conversation with Tooth in the corner, North was dumping more cookies onto a larger platter on the table of goodies up for grabs, Sandy was heading to fill up another plate of his own. You glanced up at Pitch before mouthing back to the rabbit your subtle agreement. Once he caught on, you noticed him starting to head toward you. With that, you set your free hand gingerly against the velvety cloakings over the Nightmare King’s upper arm to signal that you were stepping away. Seconds after you unlinked arms though, your and Bunny’s intentions were interrupted.

“It seems,” Pitch spoke up before either you or Bunnymund could, capturing the attention of every Guardian in the room and hushing their chatter. Most were still not used to having him near the workshop, so you could tell a few of them jumped slightly at his voice, to his amusement. Silver-gold irises trailed to your figure slyly. “(Y/n) has something she would also like to share?”

You flashed him a cold glare, knowing he only did that to beat you and any other knowing spirit to it. “Oh, come on,” you quickly played into it as your preparedness had to rebuild itself now, “I wouldn’t wanna steal Bunny’s spotlight.”

“Nonsense, we insist!” North boomed from across the space. “Go ahead.”

“I guess…” You scanned the room at the awaiting faces. You reminded yourself that there was still a chance this would be different from the concerning reaction you faced last night in the meadow. Best to say it yourself than to have either of the other two spirits who knew do it for you. “He isn’t the one here who’s gonna have a baby after all.”