Before Peter Breaks Through
Disclaimer: All copyrights belong to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. I am in no way affiliated to them. I only wrote this to entertain myself.
The boy clad in skeleton leaves flew all around the slumbering city of London, passing by the windows of the children who may or may not be currently having their own wonderful adventure in Neverland. He would have joined them, but currently the boy is having an adventure far more important than theirs, and too focused was he to even fly high enough to surprise the twinkling stars.
You may be wondering about the adventure the boy is having. Well, you see, the boys under his command, you may refer to them as the Lost Boys, were getting tired of the usual stories about sword-carrying pirates and spear-throwing Indians. They want new stories of adventure, and although the boy has lots of them, I'm afraid that he couldn't tell them for he forgets those adventures as soon as he was done with them. It is one of the many wonders that make up Peter Pan.
Every day the boy clad in skeleton leaves would fly off to the city of London, leaving the Neverlands to the care of his men. He would hide behind nursery windows and listen to the mothers telling their children bedtime stories. You may have seen him hiding behind your window before. If you have ever seen a shadow belonging to no one outside your window, then it is most likely that Peter Pan was listening to your mother telling you a bedtime story.
Now, it is important to know that Peter Pan detested mothers more than anything and anyone else. He utterly despised their nagging and small talks to each other. Worst of all, he despised the way they force children to eat those green, leafy vegetables.
But, even though he has had far more interesting adventures than most, if not all, children, Peter Pan, like any other child, has a special fondness for stories. And who can tell stories better than mothers?
But like all of his other adventures, the boy has started to lose interest. The Lost Boys wanted to complain (they still didn't know what happened to the lady who pricked her finger on the spindle wheel and fell asleep), they were never able to do so because complaining means insubordination (although if you ask Peter Pan what it means, he will never be able to tell you) and insubordination means the boy will leave you in the middle of the island at night to fend for yourself. Everyone knows how dangerous it is on the island at night; that's the time dark creatures show up.
On that one fateful day that will forever change the life of the boy who refuses to grow up, there was nothing to suggest that remarkable things will happen. It was just a normal day in the island. The boys played a game of capture with the redskins (they won, and for the rest of the day, Peter had acted as chief, which he loved oh so much) and they clashed swords with the pirates. Peter grew uninterested of the games in the island however, and the Lost Boys saw this as an opportunity to ask for more stories.
Gently, they suggested that Peter go back to London (it was probably night in London by this time) and tell them more stories. Peter Pan agreed and off he flew immediately, the boys cheering behind him.
Peter flew silently in the night, searching for windows to listen through, when he finds one window on the second floor of a quaint house still with its night-lights on. He hid in the shadows, trying to make out voices.
He could hear several voices inside, and the boy hidden in the shadows shifted ever so slightly to take a peek through the curtain separating him from the room's inhabitants. He could see two boys sitting in the middle of the room with their backs on him, staring at a girl in her nightgown standing in front of them.
She was telling them a story, and for a second, Peter thought that she was their mother. Then he shook off the idea. Peter has seen mothers before, and none of them were as short as the girl inside the nursery. She must just be their sister.
"Cinderella grew up to be a fine young lady," he heard the girl say, and he pressed his ear against the window to hear more. "You could not find a lady more beautiful and kind-hearted in their land as she. Despite not having a mother, Cinderella grew up full of love from his father."
One of the boys asked the girl a question Peter didn't bother paying attention to, and the girl replied. The story continued on, Cinderella's father brought home a new wife for him and a new mother to Cinderella, as well as two new sisters for her. The story was just about to get more interesting when he heard a bark and complaints from the two boys. The girl laughed and told them to get to bed.
"We still have to return to Neverland, remember?" The girl laughed, which sounded so much like a fairy's laughter. The night-lights were turned off and soon, heavy breathing could be heard. Peter Pan stayed outside for a few more minutes before flying back to Neverland.
He relayed the story to the Lost Boys and they loved it and were clamoring for the rest, and the boy said that he shall try to get the rest of the story the next day. He would never tell them, but he was just as excited to go back, but for a different reason entirely.
For two weeks the boy has been coming back to that one window in London, hiding in the shadows with one ear pressed on the window to listen to the stories the girl would tell her brothers. Sometimes they were stories about him (those were his favorite kind of stories) and sometimes they were stories about princes and princesses with happily ever afters. All those stories he would tell the Lost Boys, to which they were delighted.
Sometimes he would hover outside their window just to watch the girl help their furry nurse with her brothers. He has seen these children's real mother, and in Peter's opinion, she was nothing compared to her lovely daughter.
There was one night when the boy acted carelessly. It was one of those nights when he brought Tinker Bell, his fairy friend, with him. Tinker Bell is such a charming fairy with a deep fondness of Peter Pan that she refuses to give him to another lady, believing that she is, in fact, Peter Pan's fairy despite the fact that he is a boy and she a girl.
On the night Peter decided to bring Tinker Bell, the little fairy pokes her tiny head on the window and saw the girl Peter Pan has been visiting the past weeks, and she immediately hated the girl. Fairies are too small that they only have room for one emotion at a time, and Tinker Bell was burning with jealousy.
"What's the matter with you Tink?" Peter asks her, completely unaware of the fairy's feelings. The fairy lets out a series of angry tinkling noises (tinkling is the fairy language), and Peter, though fluent in speaking fairy, has no idea of the inner workings of a lady's mind and therefore does not get why Tinker Bell is speaking so ill of the lady inside the nursery.
The two outsiders were so engrossed in their conversation that they failed to notice the night-lights have been turned off. It was only when they heard a loud bark from inside that they realized that they have been caught by the children's mother and the furry nurse. Quickly the two zoomed away, but they were not fast enough. The furry nurse dashed to the window and shut it close, taking a piece of the boy.
For days the boy has been without shadow but he dare not go back. Not yet anyway. He was sure that the children's mother would be waiting for him, and he didn't want to get caught by an adult again. He waited for the perfect timing, and sought the help of the stars to tell him when the perfect time will be to take back his shadow.
The stars, though they do not take part in human events and mostly just stay up in the sky to watch, usually do not agree with Peter, but they do love mischief and their love for it led them to work just this once with Peter Pan. They watch over the girl and update him of her status.
On the night when things would forever change for the girl, the stars have relayed to Peter that they heard her parents speak of their plans for their daughter's future. Peter wrinkled his nose in disgust.
There could be no tragedy worse than seeing a child as lovely as her grow up. Peter must admit that he has thought of bringing the girl to the Neverlands more than once but he has never been more determined to bring that thought to fruition. He has already planned a tour for the lady, probably a tour of the Mermaid Lagoon and then the Pixie Hollow. Peter Pan has thought of everything for the lady.
On the night the girl's life is about to change, it had been quite a normal day for them. Her father and mother were to go to a party and they were to stay sound asleep in the nursery. They ran into a little trouble with Father Darling however, his outburst caused the children to side with their furry nurse.
Peter waits in the shadow, Tinker Bell with him. He waits with bated breath, excitement over getting both the lady and his shadow barely containable. He wishes Mrs. Darling would hurry up and join Mr. Darling downstairs, but it took her some time to calm her children down.
Once they were calmed and the night-lights were lit, Mrs. Darling took one look back at her children, as if sensing something out of the ordinary. She closes the door with the smallest click and joined Mr. Darling downstairs.
The stars blew the window open as soon as Mr. and Mrs. Darling were out of sight and the smallest one let out a delightful little screech of "Now Peter!" The boy zoomed inside, shortly followed by his fairy friend, and landed with a soft thud in the middle of the room, eyes scanning the darkness for any sign of movement.
He was careful not to make a sound, tiptoeing through the dark room (the night-lights were blown off by the sudden gush of wind from the newly opened window), when Tinker Bell made a loud sound and pointed at the drawer where the nurse has put it for safekeeping. Together, the two of them cornered the shadow so that it doesn't escape (Tinker Bell got lost after this event. She got stuck inside the drawer).
The boy was so delighted that he got hold of his shadow that did a happy dance around the room before settling down at the bottom of the girl's bed. He tried to stick it on with soap but it won't stick. It got so that he cried out of frustration and his sobs were what woke the slumbering girl.
"Boy," she inquired, with blue eyes that sparkle even in the dark. "Why are you crying?"
The boy immediately stopped crying and stood up straight before doing a curtsy. The girl, so delighted was she to be curtsied by a boy as endearing as Peter Pan, stood on her bed and curtsied back. And in that moment the boy has unknowingly begun his greatest adventure of all, an adventure far beyond the reaches of his imagination. An adventure that will bring him both sadness and happiness. An adventure with the happiest of all happy thoughts.
A/N: hey there~ Olympicmayhem's back at it again with a new Peter Pan fanfiction. Did I do alright? Good? Bad? I want to know your thoughts. Feel free to write up whatever criticism you can think of in the comments box below. I'm apologizing in advance for sucking as usual and for the grammatical errors. I don't really have the time to check it. Also, if you have more time, you can check out my other Peter Pan story entitled When She Grew Up…and Him if you still haven't read it, and leave a comment there as well. Thank you for giving Before Peter Breaks Through some of your time! This idiot is so happy you read it! Remember to leave a comment after you read okay? ~^^~
-olympicmayhem
P.S I edited the ending lol I think this one fits more than the other ending I did.