A/N: This is really all Sultal's fault. She had to give me the feels, and make me ship this pairing-and here we are. My goal is to infect as many people as possible with those same feels, so they go out and write more to feed my addiction. (Pretty please?)
Disclaimer: I own junk, but neither Treasure Planet nor Peter Pan are considered Junk.
Sail Me Away
By Tsuki Hoshino
The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choice-less as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea.
(Anne Morrow Lindbergh)
It was really quite terrible for her to spend their weekend by the sea brooding, but try as she might there seemed to be no escaping her thoughts, even when Michael and John did their very best to preoccupy her.
The wind coming in from the sea brought with it a chill, as she strode along the coast playing a game with the swelling water- feet always just out of reach of its cool, wet grasp- nothing like the tropical sea she knew from what felt like a lifetime ago. In the distance Wendy could hear the clamor of Michael and John laughing and roughhousing fading away as the crashing of the waves against the rocky shore drowned them out.
Strolling just a little further she found a perch well out of the waters reach where only spray of water could reach and stared out into the gray waters- so different from the tropical waters of Neverland. They were dull and cold. 'But blessedly free of Mermaids.' Wendy shuddered as her thoughts wandered from the past and towards the looming future.
Childhood is well behind her now, at the age of 16 and dreaming of the past will offer her no sanctuary from what's to come; marriage. The act of marrying is not where her worries lay, but rather with whom.
Edward Parker is- as far as she knew, a perfectly respectable, logical, mild mannered- if a bit tight laced, everyday English gentleman who has no inclination to wonder about what's beyond his realm of knowledge. 'In other words he's perfectly boring and entirely too much like father.' A quiet little part of her quips miserably. 'But, Father likes him terribly and has pushed the arrangement so heartily and readily it's not as if I have any other choice but to accept or break his heart.' Or worse still, earn his ire.
"Oh! It's not all so bad." Wendy reminded herself as she often had too these days. 'After all you want to marry and have a home and children of your own to love and care for." It's why she left Neverland behind, because there were things that an endless childhood could never bring.
With a sigh, she pressed her cheek into the palm of her hand, and stared off into the distance, wishing if just a little that she could fly away and leave her troubles for another day.
"Wendy!" Michael's red and white stripped swim suit was a bright splotch of color against the pale day as he waved a small wooden sailboat in the air. "Come 'ave a sammich!" he called, mouth stuffed to the brim, even as John admonished him for his deplorable manners.
John who had always carried the qualities of being steadfast and stalwart still seemed to have a gleam of something adventurous gleaming behind his glasses and dear, sweet Michael now seven years of age was still the same, thoughtful, intuitive thing he'd always been. He always had a sense of knowing when someone needed to be distracted from themselves.
A sweet feeling washed over her and Wendy couldn't help but smile. "Yes, all right!" She agreed, picking her way down the rocky outcrop and down along the shore where the tidal pools dotted along the sandy scape- and then something glittered at the corner of her eye and perhaps for half a moment she thought it to be a pixie, and pirouetted so quickly she nearly stumbled.
There was no glittering trail of golden dust or chiming bells to be seen or heard, instead half buried in the sand was a palm sized orb draped all in seaweed and mottled green from ages of being submerged in water. Still, in some spots there glittered something bright like copper or gold. "Well, I wonder what you could be…" she asked, pulling it free and brushing away its adornments as she continued walking, pondering her new find.
There were strange dips and groves that that she could feel pressing into her hands, and yet she could see no patterns with her eyes. "Curious." She said to herself quietly, settling down on the blanket next to her mother.
"Wendy, what did you find?" John asked pushing his glasses further up his nose, as he put a halt to the subjectively thrilling conversation his father had been regaling him with on stocks.
"I've no clue." Wendy laughed when Michael nearly face planted into her lap.
"Maybe it's a pirate's buried treasure!" The sandy haired boy caroled, holding up his ship admiringly. "Or Aztec gold…or maybe it fell from a star!"
Wendy hummed and held her find up to the sky. "Perhaps it once belonged to a mermaid?" She teased, smiling indulgently.
"Or even from a submarine!" John suggested, nibbling on the edge of a piece of bread.
"Doesn't look much like something from a submarine…" Michael said his nose crinkling in disagreement.
John snorted and shook his bread at the younger boy. "How would you know? Have you ever been inside one before?"
"No, but it's not screaming 'Submarine!' to me." The seven year old replied tartly, pressing his tawny head against his sister's leg.
Mary Darling smiled softly. "Perhaps the pixies then?" She offered, spreading jam onto a scone.
"Rather big to belong to a pixie." John rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Don't be foolish, it's no more than junk." George Darling sniffed dismissively. "Now do stop this entire hullabaloo, I'd like to read the paper in peace." And any talk of Wendy's strange find ended then and there, the thought of it put inside a box to be explored at a later time.
And the real fun begins in the next two chapters. Honestly, expect quite a bit of Sea/ocean/Sailing- maritime references, because how can you get away from them when it comes to these two randoms?
Piecing together these two universes is actually pretty damn fun, and borderline Kingdom Hearts-esque. You will be seeing a. LOT. of Disney references as well. See if you can spot them!
