Chapter Text
As Jack stepped out of his car, his eyes were immediately drawn to the familiar shape of the tree they grew. After so many years, it was hard to think of it as the tiny thing that had fit in his backseat. It had grown so steadily yet it sometimes felt like Jack only blinked and it was full grown.
Jack strolled over the library grounds over to the tree, looking over its branches and leaves and the way sunlight shimmered through it. When he reached it, he gently placed his fingers against the bark of it, rough and split over the years. The shine of his silver ring against the wooden background made him smile.
He looked up into the branches, watched the way they rustled against each other, and took a deep breath. For the very first time, he jumped up to catch the lowest branch, and climbed up the trunk with his feet, twisting around to get himself on the branch. Once he was steadily on it, he zeroed in on the branch he'd been eyeing for years for its width and nearly horizontal line. Trusting in the strength of the tree, he pulled across and stepped up branches until he reached the one he wanted and could sit down, legs hanging down and brushing against the bushel of smaller twigs from a different branch below.
Through the web of smaller branches, he could look through to the library grounds and the entrance of the library. He grinned to himself. He'd guessed that it'd be a good people-watching spot and he was right. The wind brushed through the canopy to tickle by his skin before moving on and the view of people sporadically entering and exiting was framed by and decorated with leaves.
He sucked in a deep breath, unsure if it was a placebo or not, the way he felt the air was fresher in a tree. As he sat there, he got a chance of quiet and time to contemplate the relationship that had indeed grown with their tree. Year after year passing as things changed so slowly he almost didn't notice at all.
Though, he thought with a smile as he looked down at his ring, it was kind of hard to not notice a wedding. Thinking of the wedding coaxed his eyes over to the side where a younger tree was whispering with its shivers. Jack sucked in another deep breath, content and free. He found the usual peace and happiness of being in a tree was multiplied when it was a tree he planted himself, one that Pitch planted with him. Sitting in the silly symbolism of their starting relationship.
Life, he decided at that moment, was good. Then he heard footsteps coming from a different angle of the tree, somewhere Jack couldn't see from where he was sitting. He was about to brush it off as just a casual library walker when the distinctive sound of someone climbing came from around the tree.
Huffing a little bit under his breath, Jack leaned as far as he could without falling to try to see who was trespassing in the technically-public tree. His mood lifted so quickly that it felt like air as he saw a figure of black moving its way through the branches. Dark grey hair stuck out even as it was difficult to get a good look at Pitch's face until he got up a ladder-like series of three branches to come just before Jack.
Without a word spoken, Jack shifted to the side, careful to go only as far as necessary. Half his reasoning being for the safety of the tree and him, and the other half of the reasoning just for the excuse to be as close to Pitch as possible as Pitch settled down onto the tree as well.
As Jack leaned against his shoulder, happy in the years-worn quiet between them, he took a moment to appreciate the sappy feeling that still rose every time he got to sit in a tree with Pitch. He couldn't explain why it was so special to him, but it worked no matter how many times it happened.
A moment passed before he realized it was more than that. He was sitting next to his favorite person, whom he was married to, in his favorite tree, (something he'd never say out loud to avoid offending their younger one). He literally could not imagine a better scenario.
“I did good.” He declared into their quiet.
He could feel the way Pitch startled a little before responding. “I agree, wholeheartedly, but can I know, at least in this specific circumstance, what it is you did good on?”
Jack shrugged. “Life. Who knew I'd end up here?”
“In a tree?” Pitch scoffed. “Jack, I could have told you you'd end up in a tree during our first date. No one is surprised.”
Jack snorted. “You know what I meant.”
Pitch made a small hum, “No, no I don't think I do. Please elaborate.” He teased.
“You know, here, with you, like this.” Jack chuckled. “I'm married. When did that happen? When did I become the marrying type? When did I get old enough to sit in a tree I planted?”
“We planted. She's as much mine as she is yours.”
“Yeah, okay, sorry, old enough to sit in a tree we planted.” After a few beats of contemplative silence, Jack continued. “I guess I shouldn't be surprised.”
“We did kind of, on our first date, almost literally plant the seeds of this outcome. So, no. You shouldn't be.”
“You're so validating, Pitch.” Jack responded sarcastically.
“I try.”
Jack just wiggled in impossibly closer to Pitch and closed his eyes, held between the warmth of his partner and the gentle cold of the wind. He supposed he'd never made a better decision than that first date.