I've written a couple about the relationship between Sophie and Pitch, staring in Abyss where he gave her nightmares without ever realising because he simply sent his horses out and they did their thing, and in Beware where it's let known that she was his first believer.

Well I decided to write more, and there's gonna be more coming too :)

So I hope you enjoy, and sorry it took so long to update this fic.

Cheerio!

Composure, n
- the ability to stay calm

"Sophie! Come down for dinner, mom's told you like a billion times!" Jamie shouted up the stairs, dragging his fingers through his hair and rolling his eyes in a way only an eighteen year old could after years of mastering the art through puberty.

"Stop over exaggerating!" she screamed back through the crack in the door before shutting it with a huff. The twelve year old sighed and looked to the being sat on her bed with his hands clasped, not really sure what to do with himself.

"You should go for dinner," he said after a moment, and the blond nodded a little before scraping her hair back behind her ears.

"Yeah, but I'm not even hungry," she grumbled, sitting next to him and picking up her schoolbooks before dropping them in a heap next to her bed. "Besides, I'd not finished telling you about my day at school."

"You can tell me later," he offered, standing up and brushing his jet black hair back. "If he comes up though there'll only be trouble."

Sophie nodded her head. It was true that if Jamie came up and saw her talking to this man then there'd be hell to pay. She was talking to Pitch after all. But she'd known the Nightmare King for years, had talked to him about all her problems and he'd offered what help he could. She'd forced him to play with her teddies when she was little and he'd gone along with it purely because the little girl was his first believer. It was something that seemed to lighten him up when he was around her. Sophie, despite only being twelve, was highly aware that Pitch could be an absolutely despicable person. He was vindictive, manipulative and power hungry.

But at the same time, she'd gotten to know him very well. He longed to be believed in, longed for acceptance and his malicious behaviour was simply a tragic means to an end. He could be a very good person to talk to, especially as a young girl making her way into puberty. She had to many trepidations about growing up and despite Pitch feeding and growing off fear, he did in a small way help her overcome them. Simple comments about other people going through the same experiences as herself, or the fact that millions of people managed it already helped her see that it wasn't such a terrible thing.

Sophie knew however, that because of his less likeable attributes, it would not be good to mention her friendship with Pitch to her brother, or any of the Guardians. Especially not Bunny. The Pooka hated Pitch with every fibre of his being, and that was perhaps her greatest fear, and nothing Pitch could ever lessen.

It was the thundering on the stairs that snapped her back to reality, and when she looked up at Pitch she saw the stricken look in his eyes, mirroring the way she felt herself. She stood and motioned to the older man to hide, but Pitch seemed frozen, and when Jamie burst into the room looking annoyed at the fact that he'd had to fetch his little sister to dinner, he froze too, his eyes scanning over the pair who had been talking quietly, before fury lit his eyes and he rushed in.

"The hell is he doing here?" the brunette growled, standing between Sophie and Pitch and glowering at the man who had plagued him and his friends when they were kids.

"He's my friend," Sophie found herself saying, and when Jamie whirled around to stare in shock at her, she found a calmness slip over her and she looked up into her big brothers eyes, standing defiantly under his piercing gaze.

"Your... friend?" he asked hoarsely.

"Yeah, we've been friends for years," she told him, shrugging, and watching as Jamie turned to look at Pitch who was staying silent. For a second Jamie paused, trying to make sense of it, but then his anger burned through and he glowered at the man, gritting his teeth.

"Get out," he hissed, and Pitch cast a sorry look to Sophie – silently apologising for leaving her to deal with this alone – before melting back into the shadows and disappearing. Sophie was quiet herself as Jamie rounded back on her, furious.

"Dinner, now," he seethed, and she walked from her room to go downstairs.

The meal was eaten in awkward silence, and however much Sophie stared at her plate she could feel Jamie's eyes burning into the top of her head, and she knew that nothing good could come from him seeing Pitch there in her room, and her telling him they were friends with one another.

She knew it would all come out that she was his first believer, she just worried about what would happen when it did.