"Wendy! Wendy are you ready dear?"
Wendy sighed and looked back at herself in the mirror. She didn't want to go to this party, she didn't want to go anywhere, she wanted to be at home looking after John, and Michael, and the boys. She wanted to be telling them stories and having fun, she wanted to have the joyous feeling of seeing a shadow move or a twig break, or even a leaf crunch, and know that he was there listening.
Instead she was in a long red dress with her hair styled up, wearing a little make-up, looking incredibly like her mother. Her parents insisting that she should be attending this ball, for the sake of the family.
"Wendy, have you said goodnight to the boys?" Her mother said standing in the doorway of the room that belonged to Wendy and Wendy alone.
"Not yet mother, I was on my way to now."
"Hurry up darling or we'll be late." Her mother said softly.
Wendy nodded and rushed out of the room. She then walked a little way along the corridor, and into the room that belonged to John, Michael, and the lost boys.
"Wendy!"
"Wendy!"
"Wendy!" several voices echoed.
"Hush, you're all meant to be in bed. Don't make me get Nana in." She warned playfully. "I came to say goodnight."
"Goodnight Wendy."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Several voices again echoed.
"Goodnight bo... John! Why is the window closed?" She was about to go when it had caught her attention. It was more out of habit that she glanced at the window every night that she came into this room, and every night it was open. But not tonight.
"Wendy, it was cold." John said to her, but she ignored him and went to open the window.
"Get another blanket if you're cold." She snapped as she opened it. Wendy immediately felt regret for snapping at her brother. "John, I'm sorry." She said and went to hug him.
"It's okay. I understand." He replied.
"WENDY!" Her father called from several floors below. Immediately she let go of John and ran out of the room and down the stairs. Her parents gave her a wrap and then ushered her out of the door and into the carriage.
Peter listened to her make her goodbyes. Despite the fact that the closed window muffled the noise, he could still hear her every word clearly. Smiling at her defensiveness of the window being closed her moved away from it and to a place where she would not see him. He never let her see him. But then that was only half true, she always knew when he was there. She saw his shadow move, she heard his footsteps. She told the stories that she knew he'd come and listen to. He knew that she knew he was there, but he did not let her see him.
Wendy rose up and out of the carriage after her mother and followed by her father. They walked up the steps to the old castle at which the ball was being held.
The three Darlings were presented with masks at the door of the ball, and then were passed through them onto a magnificent indoor balcony. There were steps along wither side of it, sloping steadily down the curved walls.
Candles littered the room and light flooded every corner of it. The mere sight of it was beautiful.
Wendy descended the steps down towards the floor of the room. She stayed close to her mother and father, but found their conversations very uninteresting. Her mind began to wander, and she began to look around the room looking for someone closer to her own age, surely someone would be.
She began to move through the crowd that surrounded the dance floor. It was as she passed the door leading into the garden that she spotted her. On the dance floor itself, a young girl wearing an emerald green dress with blond hair was dancing, the girl resembled Tinkerbelle, so much that Wendy nearly called out in surprise, but then remembered where she was and stopped herself. Her partner looked not much older than her, again with blond hair.
She rushed back to her parents.
"Mother who is that?" She asked quietly pointing at the girl who was still dancing.
"They are the hosts son, and daughter." Her mother replied. "The girl is called Bella, she is not much younger than yourself."
Wendy waited until the dance ended and then walked over to Bella and her brother.
"Good evening, I am Wendy darling, what is your name?"
Bella just looked at her and strode off into the garden.
"Belle!" The boy called after her. "Excuse me." He said and then began to follow her. Wendy was slightly insulted but proceeded to follow the boy.
"Belle! Belle! TINK!" He shouted as he walked outside. Wendy stopped at the word 'Tink'.
"Excuse me." She said to the boy. He stopped. "What did you just call her?"
He tensed, then turned. "I called her Belle, as in short for Bella." He said carefully.
"You said Tink, as in Tinkerbelle. I heard you." She accused, hardly daring to hope that it was them.
"I did not say anything of the sort!" He shot back.
"Yes you did, I heard you!" She cried.
"Prove it!"
"I don't want to tell anyone. Please tell me, is it Tinkerbelle?"
"Yes, now be quiet about it." He warned staring at the trees in which she had disappeared. "Great, I'll never catch her now." He added.
"What's your name?" She asked, trying not to let the excitement creep into her voice.
"Come and dance with me, it should deter any questions about her disappearance, if anyone does ask she's outside getting some air." He told Wendy in a stern tone.
Wendy saddened. Peter would never talk to her like this, like she was a stupid child. To him they were equals, weren't they? But then if this wasn't Peter, why was Tinkerbelle here?
The boy had taken her hand, rather gently considering the way he'd been speaking to her, and took her back into the room and onto the dance floor.
He took her waist and began to lead her around the floor as if they'd been there all the while.
Wendy was looking at the boys eyes. They were clear sapphire blue. And they were looking anywhere but at her. After a while Wendy was sick of it.
"Peter look at me." She said softly, almost pleaded.
The blue eyes met the green ones, and something inside the blue melted. They became warmer. Softer. They became the eyes of the boy she had fallen in love with in Neverland.
The dance ended, and Wendy realised that she must go. "Come to the window tonight." She whispered to him.
He nodded and let her go.
When she got home she said goodnight to her parents, raced up the stairs and into the room in which John and Michael and the lost boys slept.
Silently Wendy crossed the room and slipped out of the open window, and onto the ledge outside it. She turned and then closed the window. When she turned again he was there. He had removed his mask.
She reached to remove hers, when a hand reached out and stopped her. Wendy lowered her hand. Peter then removed it very gently. He then took out the pins holding her hair, and it fell down into soft curls around her face.
He then sat on the ledge. Wendy sat as well, and noticed a single tear running down his cheek. Wendy looked at him. He looked exactly the same as when Hook had nearly killed him. His face was lifeless. Dead.
"Wendy," he whispered, "I'm growing up." Another tear fell down his cheek.
She looked at him. He looked older. More like an adult.
"How?" She whispered back.
"I come here every night. I come to listen to your stories. And when I come I can feel myself changing. I feel older, my body feels less childlike. I hate it, but I want to hear the stories." Peter whispered in broken sobs.
"And yet you feel stronger." Wendy said to him. He looked at her.
"How do you know?" It wasn't an accusation, but more a question of curiosity.
"Because I feel it too." She said simply. "Look at me Peter, do I look the same to you?"
"No, you look older, different, bea..."
"What?"
"Nothing." He said quickly. "Wendy can you still remember Neverland?"
"Of course, second star to the right, straight on 'til morning." She said immediately.
"Point to it." She pointed to the star that was Neverland.
"Close your eyes Wendy, imagine you're there again."
Peter moved off the ledge and hovered in front of her. He remembered on the pirate ship, she had leant forwards and placed her lips onto his. He now repeated those actions. When she felt his lips against hers she pressed her lips to his, completing the kiss.
He felt exactly the same as he had done when they had shared the last kiss, like flying high into the air and never coming down, and indeed this is what happened, he held Wendy to him, by the waist, and they slowly rose further and further upwards.
None of them seemed inclined to end the kiss. But they heard a shout coming from Wendy's window and they broke apart. Peter lowered her onto the ledge, and then opened the window for her. She stepped inside holding onto Peters hand. Once she was inside she turned back to him and placed a hand on his cheek.
"Come back soon." She whispered, and turned just as her mother walked into the room.
"Wendy! You scared me. Whatever are you doing in here?"
"I was just checking that the boys were all asleep."
"Wendy we need to talk to you, come back into your room please."
Her mother walked back down the hall to Wendy's room, and Wendy followed.
"Wendy, you are no longer a little girl anymore, it's time you were married."
"What!" She gasped.
"Hush, you'll wake the boys."
"But I don't want to be married."
"Please Wendy, it will help your father. It was why we went tonight. To discuss your marriage." Her mother said softly.
"Promise me you'll let me choose ... I'll be fair to him." She added when her mother shook her head.
"It's not for a woman to choose her husband."
Wendy looked at her mother.
"I promise you darling, he'll be perfect for you."
"You promise?"
"I promise. You'll meet him tomorrow. Now go to sleep."
"Yes mother."
Wendy felt as though everything Peter was saying was coming true. But it wasn't her just her body that was feeling different. It was her life.
She woke in the morning with a sense of dread in her stomach. She dressed and went down to breakfast.
At mid-morning there was a knock at the door. He father answered it, and Wendy knew it would be her new family.
Her father re-entered the drawing room with three people in tow. A man and a woman. And a boy.
He was her age. He was blond. His eyes looked straight at her. The cold sapphires suddenly were full of warmth.
"Good morning, Miss Wendy, my name is Peter."