Disclaimer: This story belongs to a lot of people who aren't me, but I'm not sure who they are exactly. It's based on the 2003 movie of Peter Pan. This is what I wished had happened.
III
Wendy sat at her desk in her own bedroom, reading the book her aunt had bought her. It was a book on etiquette, on 'what is done' in society. Any hopes that having a child of her own would calm Aunt Millicent's passion for raising Wendy had long since been dashed. She was three months into her tuition, and was hating every moment of it.
"I do want to grow up." She whispered to herself. It had become her mantra, her way of convincing herself that she had done the right thing when she had come home, "I do not wish to be forever a child."
Aunt Millicent entered the room, and smiled approvingly when she saw Wendy reading her book. "It's very good, isn't it?" She asked.
"I suppose it is." Wendy agreed sadly, "But I'm very tired now, and would really like to go to sleep." Aunt Millicent's face grew stormy, and she shook her head sternly.
"Now Wendy, we must have discipline. I told you to finish that book by tonight, and you must."
"But it's all so...boring!" Wendy exclaimed, "I like books with plots, with adventure, with..."
"With Peter Pan." Her Aunt finished, "But Wendy, you left Peter Pan behind, in your childhood. There is no place for him in your life. Now read your book, then you can go to bed."
"Why do I have to leave everything behind?" The girl asked, "Why can't I grow up and keep Peter?"
"Because...just because! Now finish your book!"
"I will not." Wendy stood up, looking angered, "You have told me that I am no longer a child, so I will not be treated as one!"
"Then stop acting as one!" But Wendy was already walking out of the door, and down the stairs. One the way she ran into her father, who called out her name in surprise.
"Wendy! Where are you going?"
"Far far away!" She shouted back, although she knew she'd be punished for it, "Away from all of this. I wish I had never come back!"
Curly, one of her many younger brothers, was walking by as she said this, and gasped in surprise. "You don't mean that Wendy." He called.
"Yes I do." She was pulling out her winter boots, and slipping her feet into them.
"Wendy Moira Angela Darling!" Her father shouted, "Take those boots off this instant and go back to your room."
But Wendy, who's frustration and anger and hurt had been building up inside her for three long months, ignored him, and opened the front door, running out. Her father tried to follow her, but was not quick enough to catch his daughter as she slipped into the road just as several cars zoomed past. By the time they were out of the way, she was running half way down the road.
III
It started to rain about ten minutes after she had left the house. She had remembered her boots but not her coat, and she felt the water seep though her dress. She ran to the nearest park, in the hope that the trees would provide some sort of shelter, but they had all lost their leaves, and the water continued to fall on her.
"Oh, damn!" She shouted, thinking of the worst word she had ever heard her father say, "Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! Damn you Peter Pan! It's all your fault! You would have had me stay young with you! Why wouldn't you grow old with me?"
"I am frightened of growing old." Wendy didn't dare turn to face the voice she had just heard, the voice that haunted her dreams. It couldn't be him, he wouldn't come here. And he would never admit to being frightened, "I am frightened of becoming a man."
"Peter?" She asked quietly, not daring to believe.
"I'd like to be with you forever, but that could never happen here, we'd grow old and die." He's voice was quiet and sad, "And I don't want to die Wendy. Why would you make me?"
"The only way you can really live, is when you know you may die." She replied, finally turning around. He was sitting on a low tree branch, and she had to crane her neck to look up at him. He hadn't changed a bit, not that he could have. He was still tall, although now that she had grown a bit, he was not quite so much taller than her. His hair still stuck out and funny angles, even though the rain was sticking it down. He still had that sweet boyish look to his face. But he was not smiling his sweet boyish smile, and his eyes were not dancing with sweet boyish light. He looked sad, and strangely old, "It's seems to me Peter, that you have grown up yourself, just a little bit."
"Never." He told her, his voice hard, "You know I will never grow up. I can't."
"What are you Peter?" And it was a question that had prayed on her mind often when she thought of him.
"I am a boy." He told her, "Now and always."
"You told me your parents spoke of you growing up, so you ran away." He nodded, his blue eyes staring at her from above, "How long ago was this? Have you never missed them? And why does Neverland change to fit your moods?"
"Neverland is my home." He told her, "And I'm it's home. I could never survive away from Neverland, and it could never survive without me."
"You created it." Wendy whispered, "From your imagination."
"Everyone had stopped believing in Fairies, and they needed a place to live." Peter said, and he finally flew down from the tree, "Tink found me, and together we created a home for them. A home for me."
"You needed friends, so you took the Lost Boys." She nodded, "And you needed adventure, you needed danger. You needed-"
"Hook." Peter nodded, "Hook and all the other pirates. They are the souls evil men, who can't find peace in this world. So they come to Neverland."
"To play villain to your hero." Wendy brought her hand up to reach out for his, but he moved away, "And the Indians?"
"More lost souls." he told her, "A village of them was murdered, and they were never avenged, so Tinkerbell brought them to me."
"Neverland is full of these Lost Souls." She felt tears run down her already wet face, "You and Tinkerbell, you took whatever you needed to make your world complete. And when you needed me, you took me."
"You had a choice." He said defensively.
"You knew my dreams and you used them against me." She retorted, "I could no more have stayed them I could have breathed under water. And then you made me love you."
"You made me love you too!" He shouted, and he was crying too, and in the rain they stumbled forward, embracing, stroking each other's hair, looking into each other's eyes, and laughing with joy and crying with misery because they were hurting themselves all over again.
"I wish you had never come to me that night." She whispered into his ear, "No, that's not true. But I wish I'd have known that I could never have you. Then maybe I wouldn't have fallen in love."
"I'd have loved you anyway." He told her, "And that's not fair."
"I want you to stay with me Peter." Wendy's voice was chocked with tears.
"I want you to fly away with me." Peter replied.
"I've forgotten how to fly." She admitted.
"How can you have forgotten so quickly?" He asked, sounding shocked and hurt.
"Since you left, I haven't had that many happy thoughts." She explained.
"I'm here now."
"But I know you're going to leave me again."
"Not if you came with me." His voice, as always, sounded so convincing and sure, as if it could really happen. As if it was so easy.
"I cannot leave my brothers or my parents." She told him, her voice suddenly stern, "And I do want to grow up, I do."
"But why Wendy? Why would you want to do such a terrible thing? Adults are never happy." Peter looked so lost and confused, and Wendy tried to find the words to explain.
"I want to experience things that a child can never experience." She tried, "I want to meet someone to grow old with, I want to marry a man and have children with him, and see them grow up. I want to write books and have people read them, and just for a moment be in my world. And I can't do that in Neverland. But if you were to stay, it would be you who I'd marry, and you'd be the father of my children. And we could read my stories together, and go into my world together."
"I'd be a man, and I might not be the man you would love." Peter told her, "When we grow up, we're not the same person we were. And the people we are now, they get forgotten. They die. I don't want to be a man who is not the person I am now. And if you grow up, you won't be the person you are now. You won't be the girl I love. I don't want to loose you Wendy, and if you grow up, I will, and if I grow up you loose me."
"You have awfully big thoughts, for such a little boy." Her mouth quirked up at the edges, but he did smile back.
"Don't laugh at me Wendy." He pleaded.
"I'm not laughing at you." She assured him, "It's just that...I only half understand the words your saying. But I don't think you're right. If you stay with me, we can keep each other young. Every time we start to forget who we are, we can remind each other. And my brothers will help too, for Lord knows they will never grow up."
"If I leave, Neverland will die. Tinkerbell and all the fairies will die, and all the Lost Souls won't have a home anymore." He reminded her, "I can't do that."
"Couldn't we keep it alive with our thoughts, and with my stories?" Wendy asked, almost pleadingly.
"Even if we could, I still would not want to."
And there lay the heart of it. Even if they could get past Wendy's love for her family, or Peter's loyalty to Neverland, there would always be one problem. Wendy wanted to grow up, and Peter wanted to stay young, and no love for each other could get past that.
"We're never going to be together, are we?" Wendy asked finally.
"No, but you're luckier than me." Peter told her, "You'll grow old and die, and then you won't miss me anymore. I'm going to miss you for always."
"No death will ever stop me missing you and loving you." She replied.
"I...I want you to be happy with whoever you choose to be your husband." He told her, but she could hear the reluctance in his voice.
"My kiss is forever and always yours Peter." She said reassuringly, but he shook his head.
"I have your first kiss." He said, pulling out the silver thimble she had given him, "And you have mine. But there will be other kisses for you. But never for me. I was not supposed to be able to fall in love, it won't happen again."
"Oh but Peter, you should be able to have a happy ending too."
"Tell me my story Wendy, and then end it here. There can be other stories after that, but I want this one to end here." He told her.
"How do you want it to end?" She asked.
"How all your stories end."
"Ok." She took a deep breath and started, "Once upon a time there was a little boy called Peter, who wanted to be always a little boy, so he ran away from home. He met a fairy called Tinkerbell, who taught him how to fly. Together they created a world for the fairies and all the lost souls. And because Peter was really a sort of lost soul too, it was a home for him. A place for him to stay forever young. But he loved stories, and there were very few to tell in his world, so he found a girl to tell him stories, stories that ended in a kiss. And he and the girl had many adventures, and she told him many stories, and they were happy. But the girl wanted to one day grow up, so she left Peter in his world, and returned to her own, and she thought she would never see him again. But one day, when she was very sad, he came to see her, so they could end their story."
"How did they end it?" He asked, but he knew, and he was standing so close to her.
"They danced in the rain, they way they had done when the girl first realised how much she cared for Peter." She held out her hand, and he took it, taking her into his arms, "And they told each other that they loved each other, and they said goodbye, and they kissed."
"I love you Wendy." He whispered.
"I love you too Peter." She said, tears blinding her, "So very much."
The kiss was as soft and shy as their first one had been, when pirates thirsty for both their bloods surrounded them. His lips gently pressed against her own, the sweet innocent kiss of a child.
"And then he flew away, and they lived Happily ever after without each other." She whispered, as they pulled apart.
"I don't think there is a happily ever after without you." He whispered back.
"Oh but there has to be." She told him, "I couldn't bare for you to be unhappy."
"I'll always remember you."
"And I'll make sure everyone always remembers you, and knows the story of Peter Pan."
"Goodbye Wendy." He called, lifting off his feet.
"Goodbye Peter, be happy." And then he flew away. She stood in the rain a few moments longer, but he had almost instantly vanished, and there was no sight of the amazing boy. Sighing sadly, she turned around and walked home.
She had to face shouting when she got there, and plenty of punishment. She knew the lost Boys cowered when they heard their beloved Wendy being shouted at by their parents. But she stood tall, and took the reprimands, and when they were finished, she nodded.
"I'm sorry Father, Mother, Aunt Millicent." She said, "I had thought I was ready to grow up, but I wasn't. I am now though, and I'll work ever so hard at it."
It was agreed that Wendy had learnt her lesson, and Aunt Millicent even conceded that it wouldn't be terrible for Wendy to finish her book tomorrow. Wendy had honestly forgot about it. She was pardoned, and allowed to go to bed. She changed out of her wet clothes and into her dry bedclothes, and into bed. She closed her eyes and almost instantly fell asleep. She no longer shared a room with her brothers, so no one was there to see the little ball of light fly through the crack in the window. But if someone had, they would have admitted that it looked a lot like a fairy. And it looked like a very grumpy fairy as it sprinkled golden dust on the not-so-little girl's sleeping face.
III
Wendy awoke in her little hut that the Lost Boys had made for her. It was daytime, and sunlight streamed through the many gaps in the walls and ceiling.
"Oh Peter, what have you done?" She asked, standing up, and exiting the hut.
"I haven't done anything." Came a voice defensively. Peter was hovering just above the hut, "I got Tink to do it for me, although she wasn't happy about it."
"I told you I want to grow up." She almost shouted. It was so like him to completely disregard her wishes.
"You are growing up, right this very second." He told her, grinning, "And when it's morning time, you'll be right back in your own bed, still growing up. But, I thought maybe, you wouldn't mind staying young in your dreams."
"This isn't a dream Peter, this is real." She scowled.
"Yes, but it's a dream too." He explained, "Tink used fairy dust so that you'd come here in your dreams. And you can be any age in your dreams, young or old, so you won't have to grow up here."
"This won't work forever." She told him.
"It works for now though." He replied, "And that's all that matters. We can think about later later. Please stay with me, if only for a little longer, and only in your dreams."
She knew it couldn't last forever, she knew she couldn't have her secret dream world with Peter forever. Eventually she'd be too grown up to dream as a child. And she certainly couldn't be with Peter if she ever found herself a husband.
"How can you write a book of adventures, if you stay back there and don't have any?" He asked quietly, knowing just the right words to use.
"We can't be together for real though." She said sadly.
"But we'll always have this, and this is enough." He told her, "I want always to be a boy and have fun Wendy, you know that. But it won't be much fun unless your here, to share all my Happy Ever Afters."
"You know what always comes with Happy Ever Afters, don't you?" She asked, and he smiled at her with that mischievous boyish smile.
It could not last forever, but then again, forever was an awfully long time. For now the two children needed each other, and where happy with what they got.
For all little Children grow up but one.
But Wendy would not be the first to stay young in her hearts and dreams.
III
First attempt at a Peter Pan fic, so be kind.