Chioniphobia

Mutual Acquaintance

Grim didn't know what she'd been hoping for.

The boy obviously didn't recognize her. She hadn't really expected him to, although perhaps it would have been nice if he had. Then again, if he had recognized her he might've felt threatened, might've tried to fight her or just run away.

(Like everyone else)

She leaned on the handle of her scythe, watching the boy mirror her action with his staff. His eyes followed her hand as she reached into the collar of her robe.

"I take it we have a mutual acquaintance, then."

He cocked his head. "You know Pitch?"

"Mmm." Grim withdrew a tiny hourglass pendant from her collar, pulling at the chain around her neck until it went taut. She rubbed the pendant with her thumb, not meeting the boy's gaze. "It would be rather improbable for the Reaper and the Boogeyman to never have crossed paths all these centuries. Especially since death and darkness run in so many of the same circles."

"I'll bet." The boy smiled. "You don't like him either, huh?"

She returned his smile, rolling the pendant over her knuckles. "Oh, I'm fond enough of him. When he's not stealing my signature."

Frost scoffed. "Fond? Of Pitch? You're joking."

Grim felt her smile tighten along with her chest. She caught the hourglass pendant between two fingers, letting the chain trail down her arm. "Someone being fond of him..." She chuckled, dropping the hourglass into her palm. "Does it surprise you that much?"

The boy scoffed, using the end of his staff to trace icy patterns along the ground. "We are talking about someone who tried to destroy Christmas, Easter, the Tooth Fairy, happy dreams, and would've killed a kid."

She bit her lip, twirling her scythe. "Alright, so I understand why he's not winning any popularity contests."

Frost laughed, his eyes bright as the sun glinting off the snow. Grim felt the corners of her mouth pull upwards in spite of herself. The Guardian of Joy indeed. Well picked, Mim.

She opened her hand and let the pendant dangle from its chain, the sand in the hourglass trickling down. "But eternity is a long time to spend without a friend, even more so when your very existence is abhorred by most. Why shouldn't the Grim Reaper be friends with the Boogeyman? It's not as if anyone else would befriend us."

Grim tucked the pendant back beneath her collar, glancing over at Frost as she did so.

"So no, I'm not joking. I'm..."

She allowed herself a grin as she finished her sentence. "DEADly serious."

Grim took in the boy's inscrutable expression as he processed what she'd told him. Was that sorrow? Pity? Conflict as he contemplated his nemesis's relative friendlessness?

Finally Frost rolled his eyes and turned on his heel. "Bye."

Grim nearly dropped her scythe as she scrambled after him, struggling to catch him before he called the wind to fly him off. "Hey! WAIT! There was something I wanted to talk to you about!"