Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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As they were floating in the air, he broke her heart.
"Wendy, it's only make believe isn't it? That you and I are…"
Wendy's face went pale, and she wished, for an instant, that she was dreaming again, and she was back in her room with Mother and Father. She wished so strongly that what she closed her eyes, she could almost hear her voice.
Wendy…
"Oh… yes."
The charade was coming to an end, as she had known it would, eventually.
"Wendy, you see… it'd make me seem so old to be a real father."
Of course it would be, but Wendy was too young to know the difference. They both were. Why did they lie in the first place, pretending to play house, with neither of them actually knowing what to do?
"Peter, what are your real feelings?"
"Feelings?"
He plays dumb, and it makes her seem foolish as well. But aren't we all fools in love?
"What you feel. Happiness. Sadness. Jealousy."
She wants to know, really want to know, but he's afraid to let her in, afraid that it will force him to do things that he pretends he is not yet ready to do.
"Jealousy? Tink."
The little fairy, dangerous in her scheming almost would be shocked to hear it, if she could. But she is not there, in the forest, and there is no magic in the boy's voice when he says it.
"Anger?"
"Anger?"
Who is that sound, creeping around the forest and breaking twigs with his step. He scans the forest, and the illusion that they are alone is all but lost. His muse approaches…
"Hook."
Honestly? She already knew the answer to that question, obvious as it was.
"Love?"
He faced her this time, not afraid, but when he saw her face, he all but fell apart. So he lied to her, as all great liars do, but lying to your love is different. It is like ripping open your soul and letting it rot. Like seeing pirate and mermaids, and falling in love, and then having him tell you a lie about how he feels. It's an awful feeling, and it feels somewhat like butterflies.
"Love? I have never heard of it."
He lied, and her heart broke.
"I think you have Peter. I daresay you felt it yourself. For something or someone."
For me…
That is what her heart was sending to him, just those two simple words, that's all she wanted him to hear, out of everything that they had ever said to each other.
For me…
"Never. Even the sound of it offends me. Why do you spoil everything? We have fun don't we? I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?"
She tried to reach out to touch him but he recoiled, was he frightened of her? She had never – he had always – what had she done?
"There's so much more."
His face was anguished now, he wished that they weren't talking about this, weren't having problems, wished that things could go back to the way that they used to be. But things would never be the same. But at the very moment that he was denying it, he was telling her one thing.
"What! What else is there?"
He cared for her, maybe even love, but he wasn't ready.
"I don't know. I think it becomes clearer when you grow up."
He was angrily shouting now, and she wanted him to stop, but she could not mouth the words to do so. She couldn't stop his tirade, his mangling of her heart. She was too broken already to make it stop.
"Well I will not grow up, you cannot make me. I will banish you like Tinkerbell!"
This time, she yelled back.
"I will not be banished!"
That is what he wants to hear, but his mind overpowered his heart. She didn't want to leave him; he was happy. She wanted him to accept responsibility; he wasn't ready, he was still a boy, he never wanted to be anything else.
"Then go home and grow up! And take your feelings with you."
As Peter fly off, she felt her heart take one last complete beat before shattering into a million pieces. She wanted to cry, wanted to scream.
"Peter! Peter come back! Peter!"
And she was left alone in the forest, leading pirates to her doorstep, without knowing if she will ever see him again.
They say that Peter Pan is a fairy tale, for children when they can't go to sleep, but if you cannot tell that is a tragedy, then you are one as well.
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The slightly angsty, depressing tale of Peter Pan would be so much better with love, eh? Review??
A