A/N:Thank you so much to those following, favouriting, and reviewing despite the fact that I haven't updated in a while. I think it's been a few weeks since my last update but I haven't forgotten about this fanfic at all, nor have I forgotten about my wonderful and supportive readers! Thank you so much all. Hope you're liking the story so far. X
"Feeling better?" asked Chaddie, walking over to Wendy with hot tea and soup. Wendy nodded as she took the tea from him.
"Yes, thank you. Thank you for taking care of me," she smiled.
"I try," Chaddie blushed. "I hope you get well soon Miss Wendy. Peter's out looking for some medicine for you so I hope that will do. Try to get some sleep, yeah?" he asked. Wendy nodded as she rested her head down and started to rest. She was so fatigued that she started sleeping and snoring right away. "Oh dear," Chaddie sighed. "We've got a Code Red," he shook his head, clicking his tongue.
"What's that?" asked Nico, carving away more and more creatures in the corner of the room.
"What if she dies?" asked Chaddie. "She's been bleeding."
"Yeah, but the blood's clotted," Michael shook his head, playing his games in the corner. "Fuck, I'm about to run out of battery."
"Michael, language," John called out from the table, painting away a man in shades of gray, blue, and black. Michael rolled his eyes before focusing back on his game. "If the blood's already clotted Chaddie, I don't think there's much to worry about. Besides, you said Peter knows where to get all these remedies. I won't be too worried," John looked up at him before adjusting his glasses. "And this is my sister we're worrying about. I'm not worried. So don't worry. I know Wendy. She'll be fine," he smiled.
"Okay," Chaddie said. "Well in that case," he patted his belly. "I'm going to go out and look for food. Tarik? Wanna come practice your aim?" he asked. The twins Max and Jax raised their hands and followed Tarik and Chaddie outside to go hunting.
"So John, tell me about yourself," Seth said, sitting across from him at the table as he dug into a plate of barbecue duck. "What do you do with your life? Do you do anything with your life? What are you painting? Is that duck? I do quite like duck."
John laughed. "I'm seventeen. I like to paint. Do art and stuff. I'm painting… I'm not sure what I'm painting. Abstract stuff," he gulped. "Some guy. Some… angst-ridden guy," he chuckled under his breath. "Shit," he cursed as he accidentally spilled some black paint all over the man's face.
"Well, it surely looks abstract, yes it does," Seth commented. "You're a talented artist, John. You keep up the good work, yeah?" he asked. John nodded as Seth took a bottle of rum from his side and walked outside. Nico beckoned John over.
John sat by Nico, watching his friend as he continued to carve. "Hey man," Nico greeted. "I uh, you know… we're friends, right?" he asked.
John looked up at the sound of the word 'friends.' He's never really had friends before and the fact that this boy he only met a few days ago was insisting that they were friends, made John the happiest boy in the world. "Y-yeah," he stuttered nervously. "Why?" he asked.
Nico bent over and looked around, making sure Michael couldn't hear and making sure that Wendy was as sound asleep as she seemed. "Look bro, I know it's kind of wrong – you being my friend and all – but I… I was wondering if it was okay with you if I um… I really like your sister," Nico gulped.
"What?" John whispered, his face shocked. He held back his laughter. "Ew, why? That's like committing suicide. I know Wendy's great but she's a handful," John shook his head.
"Yeah but," Nico bit his lip. "She's so hot. Man, do you think if I touched her boob while she was sleeping, she'd notice?" he asked, about to get up. John pushed him back down.
"Oh fuck, enough of that!" John laughed. "You're so sick."
The two of them sat there laughing for a while. "I'm glad I met you John," Nico laughed. "Being the youngest in the batch of boys here is kind of awkward. I'm only sixteen," Nico explained. "And I tried to befriend your brother but I um, I don't think he enjoyed my company," his eyes scoped the room slowly and stopped at Michael, screaming 'die, die, die!' as he continued playing his video games.
"Don't worry," John laughed. "Michael doesn't actually like to socialize with the outside world much. If he's not playing video games he's taking a shit, so that doesn't leave much time for him to actually do anything productive," he paused. "Other than… taking a shit."
Nico laughed. "You're alright, John."
"You too. You know, I'm going to be honest with you. You're my first friend who isn't forced to like me because you're my sister or my brother," John confessed. "It's nice to have friends, you know?" he smiled.
"You're my first friend who's sane. Unlike the other shitheads I need to live with and tolerate," Nico laughed. "But yeah. I'm sorry man about having a crush on your sister. If it's not cool with you, it's cool with me. I can move on. I'm like a feather. I can float away."
"Yeah," John shook his head, laughing lightly. "Don't do that man, it's weird. Please," he laughed. Nico nodded as he engulfed John into a friendly hug. "So where were you the other day? I was looking for you and was wondering if you wanted to collaborate on some art stuff," Nico suggested.
"I met a girl," John blushed, reaching into his backpack to start sketching. "What was it that you wanted to collaborate on?"
"Don't change the topic," Nico laughed. "What's her name?" he asked.
"Tigerlily," John blushed.
"Aw shit!" Nico burst out into a hyena-like laughter. "Tigerlily? You're not serious, are you?" he asked.
"No, I am," John raised an eyebrow. "Why?" he added.
Nico shrugged. "I don't know. I know Seth knew her a while back and he said that it was kind of scary to be with her. He broke it off because her dad's the leader of this crazy ass tribe. They're really strong and I heard that they'll burn you alive if you do anything wrong to them – especially her. After all John, Tigerlily is a princess," Nico explained.
John gulped. "A princess?" he asked. Nico nodded.
"But by all means if you like her, go for it. Just don't say I didn't warn you," Nico set down his woodwork and patted John twice on the back before picking up an apple and walking outside. John shrugged.
Looking for things to inspire him for paintings, John ventured to the outside world once again. He was walking in a forest looking for more mystical creatures like Tinkerbell, when he ran into his tan beauty once again. "Hello John," she smirked.
"T-Tigerlily," he stuttered, dropping his bag and causing all of his paintings to come out. She rushed on over to help him, picking up what he had dropped and placing them back in his backpack. "I didn't think you'd be here," he said.
"Well no need to sound so panicked," she laughed. As she continued helping him gather his paintings again, she saw a few sketches and watercolour tainted papers that stood out. They were mostly black and some had red on them. A lot of them were violent. "You're very talented John," she said before looking him in the eye. "But you seem broken," she added.
"What do you mean by broken?" asked John, confused.
"These paintings," her slender fingers traced the artwork. There were doodles of people screaming and others of ones crying blood. Some of them had no eyes and others were just dark and depressing to look at. "Paintings are inspired by the lives of those who paint them. Why are these paintings so… so… dark?" she struggled to find a word at first, not being so good with English (though still learning), but eventually found the perfect word to describe his art.
John shook his head as he shoved them straight into his back. "You don't need to know."
"I do," Tigerlily insisted. "John, what is wrong?" he asked.
John paused and gulped. He looked back into Tigerlily's eyes. "I used to be depressed," he began. She mouthed a little 'why,' which triggered him to explain further. "Tigerlily, when I was little I never had friends. It started off being the fact that I was born with the poorest eyesight in the entire world. I was a blind-ass bat with buckteeth and bones jotting out my sides. Sixth year came along and I started wearing braces. 'Four eyes, four eyes' they'd yell at me, and the second that the metal sat on my teeth, they mocked me because of the train tracks in my mouth and probably hoped I would be stuck on one to die. High school came along and I grew out my hair, dyed it so dark it was almost black, and I experimented with it too. I made it go every colour of the rainbow: green, pink, blue, purple. And because of my fascination with the colours of the rainbow, they confused it for my home. 'Gay,' they would then call me, and though I had no problem with gays I walked in hallways full of homophobes, who'd beat me up every day after school. At home I'd try to pour out my feelings to my parents, but all they ever told me was to be more like Wendy, the perfect child. She's wonderful, yes, but sometimes it causes me misery. It causes me misery to think that my parents care more about her than me. And even if Michael slacks off, they care about him too because he's the youngest. Nobody ever listens to me. I've been neglected for far too long and it's even gotten to the point that Wendy would have to take the knife away from me, or take the guns I had in my room and sell them to a pawn shop, or hide the ropes and scarves and belts in the house so that I would never find them," he explained. Tigerlily could only understand so little, but she still felt the hurt in every word that he pronounced.
"John, I am so sorry," Tigerlily reached for his hand, holding it in hers. "But you know what, John?" she asked. "You're a very brave man for going through all of that. I'm glad you're alive because then I wouldn't have met you," she smiled. He smiled back at her, and for a moment, there was only silence. But just because there was silence, didn't mean they couldn't connect. Their eyes connected them in a way that words never could. Tigerlily shifted a little before nervously asking him, "have you ever had pixie dust?"
"Only to get here," John laughed. "Tinkerbell – Peter's little bombshell – she sprinkled some on me and my siblings so we could fly ourselves here," he smiled. Tigerlily smiled back as she pulled out a tiny vial of pixie dust from her back pocket.
"Watch," she said. She set down the vial of pixie dust and ringed out a little lighter from her back pocket. She lit the flame just under the glass bottom of the vial and the pixie dust didn't burn, but gave off a gentle golden smoke. "Follow me," she said as she inhaled some of the smoke. John did just the same, eyes closed.
When he opened his eyes again, his irises became golden yellow and his pupils dilated. Her eyes were just the same. She smiled at him. "Pixie dust helps those to forget," she explained. "Have you forgotten?"
"I'm getting there," John laughed. The two of them took another breath of the pixie dust before Tigerlily closed the vial and placed that and her lighter back in her back pocket. She held out her hand for John as she stood up, and he gladly took it, lacing his fingers with hers. "What now?" he asked.
"We forget," Tigerlily said as she gracefully floated with John, the two of them mid-air. They flew together over the seas and lay on their backs in the sky as they saw hallucinations of colourful birds and John's paintings coming to life.
John turned to her as they lay on the clouds they were fooled to think were pink, and said, "thank you."
"For what?" asked Tigerlily.
"I've forgotten."
