It was her wedding day, and Wendy Darling was a beautiful blushing bride.
She wore a beautiful white gown made of silk and lace, and a pink sash cinched her waist in. A sweet smelling bouquet dangled loosely from her fingertips. Her face was done up in makeup so light, it was as if she wasn't wearing any. According to her mother, she didn't need it anyway.
Wendy was happy. She was going to marry someone she loved, someone who loved her. Some people weren't as lucky as she was. Her fiancé was sweet, thoughtful, and respectful. He worked in banking like her father, and was slowly making a name for himself. He also wanted a family just as much as she did.
He had never wanted a family, just her. Always her. Only her.
The man was everything her family ever wanted for her. She had been so pleased when he had gotten down on his knee in front of her, in front of her entire family, and asked for her hand in marriage. He had slipped the dainty ring onto her finger and she had cried happy tears into his chest. Her heart had been filled with joy.
And pain.
Because, though she loved him and he loved her, it wasn't the same. It wasn't a love filled with magic and dreams, it wasn't true love.
And she had had the misfortune of having true love once before. She had been forced to let it go when he had let her go.
She looked out the window of the church as her mother put the finishing touches on her hair, attaching the sheer veil to her curls. She was almost ready. It was almost time.
Would he come?
It had been years since Peter had let her leave Neverland, years since she had last seen him. Still, she had kept her window open every night since then. And he had not come for her
The night before, she had stood before the open window for hours, waiting for something she knew would not happen. Waiting for someone she knew would not come. She had fallen asleep on the windowsill, just like she had done so many times over the years, always waiting.
He won't come.
She was ready. The hymn had started and it was time to begin her march. Her mother wiped away her tears, and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek before leaving to join her brothers. Her father stood at the door to the room, gruff expression on his face as he tried to control his emotions. She joined him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Before they began, she turned towards him and whispered, "I'll always be your little girl, papa."
"You'll always be my Wendy-Bird," He whispered as he held her close. "I'll never let you go. They can't have you. We can't both have you."
The walk down the aisle was one of the most terrifying things that Wendy had ever done in her life, and she had been on many adventures. She kept wanting to turn around, to check if he was there, if he was watching or following her. Only her father's strong arm under her hand kept her grounded.
Would he burst through the church doors and steal her away, like he had promised to do so many years ago when she had spoken of marriage?
The man she was to marry was dashing as usual, his dark hair and eyes had always made Wendy giddy with appreciation for his looks. When she had first met him, she had to stop herself from staring. Though, it was not only because she thought him handsome that she stared. Years had passed and she still could not stop comparing any man to the boy who had stolen her heart.
The first time she saw him, he stood with his hands on his hips, legs spread apart, and the most wicked smirk on his lips. Wendy's heart was a flutter at home handsome he looked, the wild air that surrounded him making him even more alluring.
Her nerves did not cease when her father gave away her hand. The groom smiled at her and she could only give him a grimace in return. He shook his head slowly at her nervousness, his smile growing wider.
Would he come flying through the windows, dagger at the ready, to reclaim the girl who was once his queen?
The priest went on and on, mumbling out words she couldn't really understand. She tried to concentrate on what he was saying, but all she could hear was her panicked heartbeat.
You look beautiful, her groom mouthed at her.
He had called her beautiful as well, once, when she had been gazing in awe at the mermaids. He had told her she looked more beautiful than all of them combined.
"I do." he said, looking at her with love in his eyes. She was returning the look, she knew. Though she would never love him like she had loved the other, it was still love.
She felt her eyes well up with tears because this was it. This was her last moment as Wendy Darling, Peter Pan's girl. These were her last few breaths before she would be forever barred from Neverland. This was the end of a magical fairytale, and the start of a soft romance that would end with old age and a ring on her wrinkled finger. She was about to grow up.
This was the last chance Peter Pan had of walking in there and claiming his one true love.
"I do." She said. The words rushed out of her like a waterfall, and she was ready to drown in them. Her fate was sealed, her future secured.
"I now pronounce you Husband and Wife. You may kiss the bride."
Her husband stood in front of her. He, a man. She, a woman.
She had been kissed before. Mostly by the man before her, and once by an overeager suitor who had received a slap for his efforts. Now, she was kissing her husband as a wife, something entirely novel to her.
Still, it could not and would never ever compare to her first kiss, to true loves first kiss.
She would never feel that glow of magic and love engulf her again, for she would never kiss her soul mate again.
She would have been his first kiss, his true loves kiss, his last kiss.
It was done. She was married. Neverland had been tightly grasping at her memories for so long, but now it was time to let go, just like he had let her go.
"You won't forget me, will you?"
"Me? Forget?" A smug grin, "Never."
That night, as Wendy lay in the arms of a man who was not her one true love, not her soul mate, but who was her husband, she did so with the window of her bedroom closed.