Title: Black Coffee and Dark Chocolate Biscott
Rating: G
Summary: When help comes from an unexpected immortal, Sophie tries to make him feel appreciated.
Inspired by xcgirl08's art: (xcgirl08).(tumblr) dot com /post/37884309553/

A spray of sand covered Cupcake's book, announcing the arrival of two gangly boys from her class. She sighed and tried to shake the sand out from between the pages as she asked, "Can I help you?"

"What kind of name is Cupcake?" One of the boys, Tyler, taunted as he kicked more sand in her direction. "What are you, two?"

His friend Sean found that hysterical and burst into an ugly laughter. Cupcake rolled her eyes and brushed herself off as she stood. The first day of school was always a pain.

"Where do you think you're going?" The boys blocked her path from underneath the playground fort. "You don't have any friends to hide behind! Looks like the ugly loser got ditched this year!"

Their laughter made Cupcake grind her teeth together. It would be so easy to shove them out of her way, to just push them down and be free. But she knew it was more trouble than it was worth. They would tell on her to the teachers, she would get in trouble. Her reputation would once again go down as the big bully girl. So she clenched her book and asked through clenched teeth, "Can you please move?"

"No! What are you gonna do about it, ugly? You don't have any friends to run off to!"

Cupcake forced herself to take a deep, even breath like Pippa taught her to do. She just had to stay calm and not let them get to her. "My friends are in a different class and are scheduled for a later recess time. Satisfied? Now let me through."

"I bet they requested to have a class without you!" The boys laughed again and Cupcake started to consider just punching them when a shrill yell came from behind them.

"Cupcake!" A tiny little blonde ran between the boys and leaped on Cupcake, forcing her to drop her book to catch the girl. Sophie shook her hair out of her face and hugged her friend. "We have the same recess Cupcake! Isn't that awesome! Jamie has a different one, but I have you so it's okay!"

Sophie dropped to the ground to stare at the baffled bullies. She crossed her arms and took on the sternest glare she could muster. "Are you bothering my friend?"

Momentary shock over, the boys laughed and stared down the little girl. "Really? Need a kindergartener to stick up for you? That's pathetic! How about you let the big kids do big kid stuff, mop hair?"

"Hey that's uncalled for!" Cupcake protested, pushing Sophie behind her and away from the boys. She did not trust them to leave her alone, no matter how young she was. "Leave her out of this. Actually, how about you just leave and find something better to do with your time?"

"Leave her out of this?" Tyler smirked. "She's the one who ran in the middle of this." He took a threatening step forward, causing Cupcake to immediately retreat with Sophie. "If she can't handle some rough play, she shouldn't try to hang out with the big kids."

"I'm fine, Cupcake!" Sophie smiled and stepped out from behind her friend. Before Cupcake could stop her, the girl walked up right in front of the boys. "So how do big kids play, huh?"

"Like this!" Sean moved, ready to shove Sophie to the ground, but her high pitched whine filled their ears first. He froze at the sight of tears bubbling in her eyes and her whine started to become more of a screech.

"H-hey what are you doing kid, I didn't even touch you!" He looked around nervously to see if any teachers were nearby.

Tyler rolled his eyes. "Don't think you can scare us away by trying to get us in trouble. Someone needs to teach you how the playground really works."

"Sophie…" Cupcake warned, reaching out to pull the girl back to her. But Sophie would have none of that. She shook Cupcake off and crossed her arms to glare up at Tyler.

"Really wanna risk that? Who are they going to believe? The crying girl or the two big fifth grade boys?"

He was not convinced and was ready to push her over, but his smug smirk fell suddenly without reason. Clouds hid the sun, covering the playground in an unnaturally dark shade. Tyler's eyes darted between Sophie and the shadows, and started to back up. Sean looked at him incredulously and was about to question his friend, when a sudden change of heart hit him as well.

"Whatever, you win this time, Cupcake." Tyler said, still backing away. "Don't think you can hide behind a crying kindergartener all year!"

Cupcake could only laugh. "You're the ones running away from her! Good luck being kings of the playground now!" The boys were already running away, though, and did not spare a pause to yell back.

"Jeez since when have you been so terrifying?" Cupcake asked, sitting down again in the sand.

Sophie stared at the ground as the sun came out from the clouds once more and the shadows disappeared. "No idea… Good thing I am though! Those boys were scary! Why were they bothering you!?"

"Because they were bullies, but forget that. Tell me about your first day of school so far!"

The ordeal immediately forgotten, Sophie flopped down next to Cupcake and burst into the story of her day so far.

The golden glow of Sandy's dream dust had yet to fill the night sky when Sophie tiptoed into her dark room, balancing a tray on one hand as she closed the door. Her nightlight allowed her to navigate through her scattered toys to her bed. She set the tray on the ground, almost beneath her bed, and leaped on her bed.

"So Jack says you hide under beds…" Sophie giggled nervously and peeked over the side to stare at her offering. "So, I hope you're under my bed tonight! Because I wanted to say thank you!"

Silence was the only response. Frowning, Sophie glanced at her nightlight. He had gotten rid of the sun to come out earlier, so he probably would not come out with her nightlight on. She took a deep breath for courage and quickly unplugged the light before the changed her mind. While her eyes adjusted to the pale moonlight, Sophie settled down lying sideways across her bed to have the perfect view of the black coffee and dark chocolate biscotti.

"I was really confused at first, you know," she resumed talking to the darkness. "Because those boys had no reason to run off! There were no teachers any where near and even my lungs are that loud! So I knew someone had to have helped out! But it's September and there wasn't any ice so Jack couldn't have helped! And Bunny would have had some tunnels! And Sandy would have put them to sleep! And Tooth is way too busy to be keeping an eye on me! North too! Besides! None of them would have been able to make those bullies scared of me!

So I really had to think about it and I kept thinking about how it randomly got really dark when they ran away! I don't remember much about you, but Jamie and Jack have told me stories about fighting you. They make you out to sound like a real meany face, but you're a real softy aren't ya?"

Just the muffled sound of the crickets outside her window kept the room from silence. Sophie pouted and peeked further over the edge to look under her bed. It was black, just black. She was not even sure if he was there, but she felt like she had to explain herself.

"We thank Santa for our presents by giving him milk and cookies. You don't sound like a milk and cookies kind of guy, so I thought gross stuff would be good! Well not gross gross. Just gross stuff I don't like. And it's all dark stuff, so you have'ta like it! So, this is my thank you for saving my butt earlier!"

Sophie smiled and strained to see some sign of someone under her bed. She took hope in how dark it was underneath her bed, especially since at least some moonlight should be able to get under there. "Thank you Mr. Boogey Man!"

When the golden dream sands entered Sophie's room, she had yet to move from her sigil over the edge of her bed. Even as her eyelids drooped and she almost slid off onto the ground, she refused to give up. She desperately wanted to make sure the Boogey Man got her present and knew why she was giving him stuff!

But no child could resist the lulls of Sandy's golden dreams for long. As Sophie fell into the dreamlands, the shadows under her bed shifted and warped, slowly reaching out from under her bed toward the tray of food…

Sophie awoke in the morning tucked in with her head on her pillow. She gasped and leaped up to look at her tray. All the food was gone and neatly sitting on the plate was a scrap of paper with an elegantly written, 'Thank you.' Smiling bright as can be, Sophie dropped to the floor and stared under her bed. "You're welcome Mr. Boogey Man! Come back any time!"