Accidentally in love (mxm)

Chapter 15

They flew eastward through the night, away from the setting sun until very soon they were surrounded by nothing but a million glistening stars above, and a shimmering ocean below.
Though the distance was great, halfway around the world, to be precise, their magical mares crossed the distance in a matter of minutes, and all too soon, Pitch could see the horizon brightening again with the oncoming sunrise as they approached Europe.

"There's Italy!" Jack yelled enthusiastically, as if he would have never been there before. That boy was so easy to thrill.

As the sun became brighter, Pitch's mare began to get nervous and soon they dove down, gliding along the shadows of trees, mountains and buildings. Jack's mare appeared to have no issue with the sun, so they rode high above them in plain sunlight, all the way to Florence.

They halted in front of a rather ordinary, square, brown brick building which was attached to the Palazzo Castellani, right across the Lungarno river.

"Here we are!" Jack announced as he jumped off his horse, soon joined by Pitch who eyed the four-story building rather skeptically. It was still early, around 7 a.m., but the street was already very busy, filled with tourists and locals alike.

Their mares both rode off into the shadows, just as they approached the locked doors of the museum. It opened at 9:30.

"Aw, it's closed. Should I freeze the lock and break it?" Jack asked with a mischievous grin, upon which Pitch gave him a scandalized look.

"Certainly not. We're not breaking into a museum. This building dates back to the 12th century. It's a cultural relic! We are not going to break anything here, not even a lock. Besides... We're magical creatures – we can walk through walls."

"I can't walk through walls. You can walk through walls?" Jack asked surprised.

"Well, not exactly through walls, but I am able to get into a building without breaking anything. Are you not?" Pitch gave him a stunned look.

"No. I need a window or a door to get in..." Which made sense – Jack was ice; ice needed an opening to get into places. Pitch on the other hand was shadow; shadows and dark corners existed in every building.

Hesitantly, Pitch took the boy's hand, gently pulling him towards the shadows into which they melted, just to reemerge on the other side of the wall, in a dark corner of the closed museum.

"Awesome!" Jack whispered loudly, even though humans were incapable of hearing them, not to mention that they were alone anyway. "This is so cool. If I could do this, I could sneak into any supermarket and eat everything!"

Pitch gave him a dry look. "I think you're the worst Guardian there ever was. What kind of an example would that set for kids?"

Jack cackled loudly as they began strolling down the semi dark museum corridor.
Pitch had always known Jack was different from other Guardians, but the more he got to know him, the more he realized just how different.

During their battle ten years ago, Pitch had often wondered why the Man in the Moon had chosen someone like Jack as a Guardian, and it was a question that began to surge again now too. The boy was absolutely inadequate as a Guardian; he was young, impulsive, immature, selfish, and lacked all qualities that the other Guardians shared, so why had MiM given him those powers? So far, the only useful thing Jack had ever done, was defeat Pitch ten years ago. Which was a disaster for Pitch, of course, but viewed on the large scale of what the Guardians did every single day for childkind, rather irrelevant.

An excited gasp pulled Pitch out of his pondering.

"Here it is! Look! It's Galileo's middle finger!" Jack pointed at a gold-decorated glass egg, standing on a white pedestal.