This is the first story that I've posted in a long time. Normally, I'm not that active, but I heard Lost Boy by Ruth B. recently, and I came up with the entirety of this story before I even thought about writing down or posting it. Normally, I don't write or post, and I'm very infrequent with uploads, so I apologize in advance if there's a long wait between chapters. I don't have much excuse besides school and work and extracurricular activities, so that's it.

Also, this is not a songfic. I'm planning an epilogue where it is a songfic chapter, but in general, it is not one. ON WITH THE STORY!

Disclaimer: I do not own Peter Pan, nor do I own Lost Boy by Ruth B, which is the song this story is based on.

London, England, 1831

Heavy smoke hovered in the air, it's sting blurring her vision. Alexandra Marlow felt the sweat beading on her face, but she did not dare take a moment to wipe it away. She knew that the moment she tried, there would be another adult there to scream at her, to tell her that she's hardly worth the pay that they give to the family she serves. That was not something that she needed right now; the Bellinghams were already upset with her for a similar situation the week before. The did not really need her pay, but they couldn't find a better use for her. She was too young and too stunted to be of any proper use around the house, so they sent her off to one of the many factories that were still springing up.

They needed small bodies to fit under the still running machines to fix problems. They were constantly running out of those type of workers. She was just one among the several thousand who had gone 'missing' doing this job.

She scuttled around the corner, trying not to run too fast to get to the machine with the problem. She hated doing this, but when the little boy who usually did this job disappeared, it was suddenly her responsibility.

There was a swarm of workers surrounding it.

"Oh, there's the li'il brat!" one of them shouted.

She didn't slow, but used her momentum to slide underneath the machine. Stupid, she knew, but it was the fastest way to get where she needed to be to fix whatever was wrong with the machine.

Usually what happened was a simple jam, and she could fix it rather easily and painlessly as long as she was quick. The heavy machinery was right in front of her face, but she ignored what seemed to look normal and searched for what was the issue.

Yep. Same as usual. One of those roller-crushing things had gotten clogged, again. It was still struggling to work, which was both good and bad. The good being that, once it was fixed, it would go back to how it was supposed to really quickly. The bad being that, once it was fixed, she would probably still be somewhat under the machine when it went back working how it was supposed to.

She swallowed, then, making sure that she had the largest escape opportunity available, and scraped the junk out of the way of the roller-crushing thing. It clicked, and came slamming down and around. Using one of the legs of the machine, she pushed herself out of the way of it.

If she hadn't cut her hair off, it would have been caught, and her head probably would have gone with it.

There was a general noise of surprise as she emerged from underneath the machine, successful and alive. Some of the workers spared a moment to give her a shocked look, but some of those who had been working there for a little while knew not to waste any time.

As she was small and could fit in the narrow areas between and underneath the hunks of metal, this was one of the odd jobs that they had her doing. She wasn't strong enough to actually run the damn things, so she was stuck doing whatever they had available. There were a couple others who were like her - small, stunted, and able to do the little things.

The whistle sounded loudly, signaling the end of the workday. She didn't know if she should be relieved or upset. They had made her take more hours, so it was the middle of the night when she usually got to the house. They were always asleep, and if she woke them by accident...

It wouldn't be pleasant for her, to say the least.

The smell of smoke was no different outside than it was inside. She could hardly see the moon through the haze that lingered over the city. Her legs ached, her lungs burned, and her throat felt like it was filled with cotton; but she still had to walk out of the city and to the large house on the outskirts. Alexandra only took a moment to rest before she was off, walking as quickly as she could without full-out sprinting. Time seemed to slow with each step, and she felt like she was slogging through that thick, syrupy thing that her 'masters' poured all over their morning meal. It felt like days she was trudging through the city, though it probably only a few hours.

She was so busy making sure that one foot was forced in front of the other that she hadn't noticed that she had reached the house. She was bone-tired, and felt like she was going to fall over.

Alexandra looked up at the sky, towards the moon. "Hullo, moon."

Against her sleep-deprived body's judgement, she went around the house and into the forest behind it, the leaves dark and soot-covered. It didn't take long for her to get up in her tree, with a decent view of the moon and of several of the stars.

It took her eyes a moment to adjust, but eventually she found the pattern of the man in the moon. "It's good to see ya again, moon. You go away a lot, don'tcha?"

The moon was her only friend. The only one who didn't disappear or hurt her when she did something wrong. Sometimes he would disappear behind the clouds, or be gone in the sky even when the other stars were able to be seen. Still, whenever he was there, his light chased the darkness and the loneliness away.

"Ya know, my birfday's tomorrow. I'm not s'posed to know that, but I've counted. Miss Eleonora's birfday is ev'ry three 'undred and sixty-five days. Mine is too, just the counting starts a different day. I'm gunna be ten, tomorrow." She rubbed her eyes exhaustedly. She should be asleep, in bed, but the moon always listened to her speak. "I like talkin' especially to you, moon. I'm glad you're here, even if you aren't all the time. You make me feel less lonely."

That was when she had a brilliant idea. The moon made her feel less lonely, a lot less lonelier than in the area where she normally slept. So, she would sleep out here, in the safety of the branches. Then, she wouldn't have to leave the moon. It was perfect!

With that thought, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the trunk, facing the light of the moon. She almost dropped off to sleep immediately, but the light from the moon that she could still see through her closed eyelids was suddenly dimmed. Confused, she slowly opened her eyes. A shadow of a person had passed in front of the moon, high above where people could normally cast a shadow.

She sat up straighter and looked around, searching for what could have caused the dimness. Seeing nothing, she guessed that it was just her imagining things, and she leant back once more to settle into sleep.

"Hello!"

The jolly voice scared her out of her skin, and she nearly fell out of the tree. Someone grabbed her arm and stopped her from falling.

That someone, she noticed, had brown hair with an orangey-red tint, and had tan skin. He was dressed all in green, and he was smiling goofily. "Sorry, did I scare you? Didn't mean to. I heard you talking to the man in the moon - would you like to talk to me, too? Do you wanna talk for a while?"

"Uhm... sure?" she said it more like a question, a little afraid of whoever this guy was. "Uh... who are you?"

"Peter Pan - that's what they call me. And who are you?"

She raised her eyebrows. Usually, she would offer up her full name, but she loathed it. "They call me lots of things, but the one I like to go by is Alex."

He snickered. Apparently, he found that funny. That was good, because if she had said that to anyone else, she would have been in big trouble. "I heard you say you were lonely. Don't you have friends other than the man in the moon?"

Alex felt that was something rather personal for one of the first questions that this Peter guy would ask, but she answered anyway. "No. The moon's the only one I usually talk to. But he's not always here, so..."

"Are you always lonely?"

"Quite often, I s'pose."

"Oh. That's sad, then. You should be happy! Do you want to come with me?"

She frowned. "Come with you where?"

"To Neverland, of course!"

"How do we get to Neverland?"

He smiled even wider. "You see that star, right over there? Second one to the right? You fly there straight on 'til morning, and you'll get to Neverland!"

"Fly? How am I s'posed to fly?"

"Like this!" He leapt of the tree branch he was crouching on and did a backflip in the air. She gaped at him.

Just when she started to get excited, she realized something. "I don't know how to fly, Peter."

"Think a happy thought, and you should just start flying!"

A happy thought? Her face scrunched in concentration, trying to think of something happy.

Peter noticed. "It shouldn't be that hard... oh, and I almost forgot something!" His head snapped from side to side, looking for something. "Tinker Bell? Tinker Bell? Where are you?"

"Who's Tinker Bell?"

A little bell-like noise sounded, and a small light zoomed up to Peter.

She gasped. "A fairy!"

Peter smiled at her. "Alex here would like to fly. Could ya spare some pixie dust for him?"

The little light bobbed up and down, then twirled around Alex, small specks of glowing golden dust landing on her skin.

Alex closed her eyes again, trying to think of something that made her happy. Food, she thought, but she didn't start flying.

"Sorry, but it doesn't seem to be workin', Peter. Maybe I just can't fly."

"Oh please, everyone can fly! You just have to believe!"

"Believe in what?"

Peter thought about that for a moment. "Believe... how about you believe in me? Oh, and believe in yourself, too!"

Believe in him... and believe in me...

Think a happy thought...

"I believe that he'll get me out of here."

The thought came unbidden to her, but it worked, because she started floating. "Woah!"

"You're doing it! You're a natural!"

She smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. But, slowly, the smile faded away. "Peter, what's in Neverland?"

"The Lost Boys! You can join them, if you want. We hang out in Neverland, playing whenever we feel like it."

The Lost Boys.

He thought that she was a boy. He did call her a him to Tinker Bell. That's probably why he wanted to take her to Neverland in the first place. She grimaced slightly, upset.

Peter didn't notice her expression. "It's loads of fun, because there are no adults. Except, that is, for Captain Hook and his men. But we fight them, and we always win." He sounded very smug with that.

Alex looked up at the moon again. She could just not tell him that she was a girl... but that would be dishonest, and he would find out anyway when she grew up. Little girls and little boys looked pretty similar when they both had short hair and high voices, but big men and big woman were very different from each other. And once she grew up into an adult, she would be very obviously not a boy.

That was when Peter noticed. "Hey, Alex?"

She looked over at him.

"I promise that you'll never be lonely. Not if you come to Neverland with me."

All of her doubts flew away. Just like she was going to. So what if she was going to grow up? It didn't matter, not as long as she wasn't lonely for a little while. He promised. Sure, this was some random stranger who could fly, and maybe she shouldn't trust him quite so much, but... really, she couldn't help it. He just felt so trustworthy, and it felt like he really could keep his promise.

Her face split into the largest smile it would allow. "Yeah! I'll go to Neverland!"

Peter grabbed her hand, and off they flew into the night sky.

I'm ending it here, I guess. It's not the best, and I'm sure that my depiction of Industrial Revolution England wasn't the best. I tried to write in her dialect. It's difficult, but that's just about it. I have most of the plot planned out for this, so it'll be finished hopefully soon.

Anyway, please review and tell me what you think! It's been a while since I've written anything like this, so tell me if anything is wrong or if I've made a grammatical error or something.

Thanks,

-TIM

(TheInsaneM)