Hello lovelies! I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next week as I'll be traveling during the weekend (but on the bright side I'll have two weeks of spring break so that means longer chapters).

Mimoliin - *casually assembles sprinkles cannon* They're dinosaur-shaped, I hope you don't mind.
GiraffePanda2 - *jumps through reviews like young Harry through his Hogwarts letters*
Once again, those who reviewed get Ben hugs and an insult from Andrew. (He only does insults. Sorry.) ^.^

Hope you guys like this chapter!

If Pan was a burrito he would only have three fillings: seduction, and evil. The specialty meals would come with a side of 'intelligent psychopath' and a bottle of egotism.

I wasn't quite sure what had gotten me onto this topic but if it revealed anything it all it was that I missed fast food. The Lost Boys were all properly fed, of course, but Neverland didn't offer much opportunity for a varied diet. The constant meat and grains was starting to wear on me. I almost felt like asking Pan for a fruit tree or two since he seemed to be able to control everything on this island. I imagined how quickly that conversation would turn into him coming onto me and immediately decided that perhaps I was better off without my peaches and apples. Still, there had to have been some variety in what these guys ate or I'm pretty sure that the Lost Boys would have long since revolted by now.

It was either no fruit or no Pan. I wished both those options sounded equally unappealing. Pan may have been creepy but he was still attractive and, above all, showed an interest in me (no matter how dangerous said interest was). I wasn't so much afraid of him as I was of giving him the satisfaction of winning what he had come to call our 'little game.' Did everything always have to come back to games with him?

If Neverland is a chessboard then Pan has a full set of pieces and all I'm left with is a measly pawn. Bastard probably doesn't even have a king anyway, just two queens.

Still, even a pawn could become the most powerful piece on the board if the player thought far enough ahead. Besides, it didn't look like Pan wanted to wipe me off the map but rather assimilate me into his mutated chess piece army. I idly wondered what piece Felix would be. A knight, maybe? No, their movement was too limited. And not a rook, either – those were much too straightforward.

Heh, because they only move in straight lines, get it?

I needed to stop making my own jokes.

No, Felix was most likely the second queen, if anything. Only that second queen was subservient to Pan on all accounts.

Well, if Pan wanted a game then I'd give him a game.

I may be just a pawn right now, but give me enough time and I will become a queen.

"Matthews." Ben's voice jolted me out of my attempt at self-empowerment.

I can't believe all that started with burritos.

"What?"

"You wanted to know my last name. Took me a while to remember it, too… sorry bout that."

"Ben Matthews?"

He made a face. "Actually it's Benjamin."

I giggled. 'Benjamin' made him seem so much younger than he already was. I had to remind myself that he was fifteen.

"So what's yours?"

"Oh, um, mine's Pet-" I choked. "Potter! It's Potter."

Ben laughed. "Sarah Potter?"

"Nothing wrong with the last name Potter."

Better than the real thing, trust me. As if Pan didn't need another reason to lay claim on me. Oh, he'd have a field day if he ever found out.

"Never said there was," Ben teased. "So are you gonna keep helping make arrows?"

I sighed. "Probably." It was tedious work – one whole arrow took several hours to make – but I didn't really see any alternatives around camp. "I mean, I can probably also help mend things if you happen to have sewing needles and stuff but for the time being, yeah. I'm all about arrows."

The rest of the day passed rather smoothly, except for a brief interlude when poor Felix had to supervise my second trip to the lake. The water wasn't any warmer this time. Neither was Felix's conversation. I combed my fingers through my wet hair and hoped that it would dry neater than last time. If Pan really didn't have any combs lying around (he probably did and no one would be able to convince me otherwise) then the only way I'd be able to take care of the nest on my head is by making one myself.

Definitely have to fix my –Eddie's – clothes first though, I thought irritably after tripping over my pants for what seemed like the tenth time. Felix cast me an amused glance.

"Hey, it's not like it's my fault that my pants are so long."

"You can fix them when we return."

Hold up.

"You guys have sewing needles?"

Felix gave me a bland look. "Where do you suppose our clothes come from? The sky?"

I almost wanted to congratulate him on his humor, dry as it was. "I kind of thought Pan just used magic. Or the natives. Maybe a fairy."

Where the hell was Tinkerbell? I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.

"Sometimes the things you say make me wonder where Peter was looking when he spared you."

Thanks, Sunshine. I can always count on you.

"Probably at my chest, honestly."

"Fair enough."

"Hey, when I'm in need of compliments, I'll let you know."

I could have just imagined it but I thought I saw him roll his eyes. "Ask all you want but you'll only get them once every few days."

"Huh?"

"Pan wants you to visit the lake on a regular basis and I'm the only one he trusts enough to watch you."

"And you intend to make yourself an absolute nuisance," I said flatly.

"Think of it as extra incentive," he drawled.

"Incentive for what?"

"To invite him with you and free me from all this."

My face turned red. "I think I would much rather tolerate you and your insults."

The corner of his mouth twitched. "Whatever you say, princess."

When we returned to camp Felix directed me to what appeared to be a supply tent and left me to my own devices. Yeah, I could only handle so much of him at one time as well. The inside of the tent was incredibly disorganized and I couldn't help but feel slightly put out as I began my search. Despite my best efforts, fifteen minutes of frustrated foraging yielded nothing more than a spool of what I assumed to be string.

But the needle… Where was the needle?

I dug through the crate where I found the string one more time. Where the hell was that thi-

"Fuck!" Why did I keep stabbing myself on things? I carefully poked around the pile of cloth that seemed to fancy itself a scorpion and pulled out a tiny silver needle. "There you are!"

I climbed out of the tent and nearly yelped in surprise – something dark was hovering right in front of my face. "Oh sweet Jesus!"

I stared wide-eyed at Pan's shadow. I never thought I'd ever have to describe a shadow as tactile but this one looked, well…

Don't poke it. Don't poke it.

I couldn't decide if it looked more like velvet or rubber. A combination of the two seemed even more unappealing. Despite its texture, the shadow appeared almost translucent and I could see the campfire glow faintly through its stomach.

Pan's shadow tilted its head and its glowing green eyes watched me emotionlessly. It floated several feet off the ground and didn't seem to have any inclination of moving. I edged carefully around it, keeping a walking pace simply because 1) Pan didn't want me dead and 2) even if I ran the shadow would probably catch me anyway. It didn't follow me and I quickly shuffled into my tent and away from its stare.

Those empty green eyes… I shivered.

The bright side of the evening was that my clothes were tailored and I was no longer tripping over empty air. The downside was that Andrew beat me to the last portion of my favorite stew at dinner. I vowed to get him back for that one.

The night was oddly warm but an invariable chill still crept up the cliffs from the coastline. I wasn't sure how cold air could move upwards but hey, if Pan willed it, it happened. This is precisely why I was worried – he was either on the prowl or irritable. The boys knew this too and everyone had retreated to their respective sleeping areas rather early tonight. So why the hell was I taking a walk when Pan was in the most dangerous mood for my predicament?

I edged quietly around a cluster of tents and tiptoed to the large maple overlooking the cliffs, grateful that Eddie's shirt had long sleeves. I sank to the ground and leaned against the trunk, breathing in the fresh air. My tent had become too stifling. Maybe I'd just spent too much time in it today but I couldn't get comfortable no matter what I did. It was like the blankets themselves didn't want to cover me with sleep. The breeze swirled around me for a moment before everything went completely still.

"Out at night again, I see."

I suppressed a groan. Of course. My hypothesis of Pan being a nocturnal bat was starting to look more and more plausible with each passing day.

"I could say the same to you."

I couldn't see him but I suspected that Pan did one of his patented eyebrow movements at my comment.

He gave a noncommittal hum. The sound felt cold to my ears and I stood up to leave, not wanting to risk a repeat of the last time he found me here at night.

"Going somewhere?" he asked lightly.

Mood swings. Oh, no.

"I'm going to go sleep." It came out like a question.

The soft lilt of his voice sounded right above my ear. "Not yet."

I squeaked as he held me from behind, his warm breath fanning over the side of my face.

"Aren't you tired of this game of ours, Sarah?" he murmured. If he leaned in any closer his lips would be on my ear. "Don't you want this to be over?"

Not in the way you think I do. Well, maybe a little bit in the way you think I do.

"And lose your game?" I asked him. "No thanks." I was too exhausted to even react to his proximity.

Pan's chest shook as he laughed. "Looks like someone's getting used to me."

"Well I kind of live with you last time I checked. Getting used to you is a bit of a necessity."

"Oh, you don't live with me just yet," he commented in an almost offhanded tone.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

The playful breeze picked up again, swirling strands of my forever-tangled hair into my face. Pan took the opportunity to brush them away.

"Can we do this later?" I finally asked him.

"Later?" His voice bordered on surprise.

"Yeah, later. As in not now. And it's in your interest too cause I'm way too tired for any kind of response to all this."

"Promises, promises," he murmured in my ear.

Pan's grip on my waist tightened before he let go and a cold rush of air against my back signaled his disappearance.

Yeah, I should probably go to bed.

I turned around and nearly screamed for the second time in twenty-four hours. A pair of glowing blue eyes was watching me curiously from the trees. I stumbled backwards in adrenaline-induced fear and nearly ran to my tent.

Wasn't there only supposed to be one shadow on this island?

Pan seemed to be back to his usual cheerfully creepy self the next day. Ben suspected that yesterday's shift in his mood had something to do with members of the western tribe not wanting to obey his orders.

"Do they have a name?" I asked him.

"What?"

"You keep calling them 'western tribe.' Don't you guys know what they call themselves?"

Ben looked like he hadn't considered this before and shrugged. "Well we can't exactly ask 'em now, can we?"

"No, I guess not."

I made a mental note to find out the name of their tribe in case it came in handy with persuading them that I was in fact on their side.

Don't get too ahead of yourself.

"I wonder if anyone knows what – yo Felix!"

Sunshine stopped in his tracks and swiveled around to face me. "What is it this time, Sarah?"

"What, no 'hello'? I was wondering if you knew about any developments with the WT?"

Ben frowned. "'WT?'"

"Abbreviation for the tribe."

"Oh."

Felix tilted his head. "Well of course I know."

"Thanks ever so much," I said flatly. "Could you perhaps divulge some of this top-secret information to two exemplary citizens of this vegetated metropolis?"

Maybe 'metropolis' was pushing it a little.

"They tried to cross our borders yesterday."

Ben and I exchanged surprised looks.

"Did they?"

"Where?"

Felix looked like he didn't want to be seen associating with the likes of us. "Pan took care of it."

"Well that answered absolutely nothing," Ben remarked as Felix left.

"Except that Pan hurt and maybe killed more people." I rubbed my arms.

"S'not like he did it with his own bare hands. He could have sent the shadow to do it."

That didn't make me feel any better. He'd touched me last night. He'd touched me with hands that could have broken a man's neck only minutes earlier. And that second shadow…

No, Pan was wrong. I'll never get used to him.

"You should stay away from our borders," Ben said with a frown. "Pan or no Pan there's only two of him and who knows how many natives."

"And that's assuming he'll even bother to protect me," I commented. "But it's not like I don't know that, Ben. I'm not five."

"You're still young."

"Um, I'm older than you."

His eyebrows drew together. "No you're not. Not really."

I stared at him in surprise. How was this young boy so grown up in a place that was meant to be a home to children?

Pan is how, I thought bitterly. Ben was just harder to corrupt than most.

"Oh! Oh, I'm such an idiot! That's where!"

"…Ben? Are you okay?"

"I can't believe I didn't notice it before! I'm such an idiot - of course Felix told us everything, he was just being Felix and we were too stupid to notice."

I had never seen Ben quite so excited. "We were supposed to notice something?"

"The border crossing? That was at Dead Man's Peak."

"You say this like it's supposed to mean something to me."

He didn't stop his wild gesticulations. "That's where the Spring is. Drink from it and it'll heal anything, even Dreamshade."

"Whoa hold up. Anything?"

"Anything."

Will it remove Pan's head from his ass?

"So… the tribe needs medicine, that's what you're saying?"

"Most likely. They've always wanted access to the water but Pan expanded our borders just before you came here."

Things were starting to come together now. "So that's why that boy came back hurt."

Ben nodded.

"And why – oh god that's why Eddie-" I needed to go calm down. The clothes I wore felt foreign against my skin again.

"Things are usually more peaceful," he tried to sound comforting. "Sometimes."

"Sometimes."

"Take it up with Pan, not me."

"As much as all of this sickens me I think I'd rather not."

I couldn't believe Pan was denying people medicine for his own selfish needs. The boys didn't even seem to use it that often as I'd never heard anything about it before today. That put a whole new spin on why we were 'the enemy.' Did he deny the natives access to the spring completely? It wouldn't make sense for them to react quite so violently if he at least rationed it or named a price. The more time I spent on Neverland, the more messed up this place seemed to become.

There was something about waking up on an imaginary island for a week and a half that made me extremely irritable. That something was Pan.

"Do you have any concept of personal space? I know you're trying to seduce me and all here but for fuck's sake." I ignored his raised eyebrow and plowed on. "There comes a point where hovering over someone is no longer attractive and just falls into the realm of creepy."

I wondered if he could tell that I was exaggerating. He couldn't be creepy when he was this close, not anymore. Not since that blasted dream that sent my common sense away with a cheery wave. It didn't even think to send me a postcard from the faraway land where it currently resided.

"Well," Pan said, stepping closer to me, "if I really am, as you so eloquently put it, 'creepy'…" He tilted his head with an amused smirk. "Then why are you blushing?"

Fuck, why did he have to notice these things? I took a step back to widen the distance between us and my back collided with a tree.

When did that happen?!

Pan looked like he couldn't be more pleased with the situation.

Fucker probably moved that tree there himself.

"That's called a sunburn, Pan."

"A sunburn that only appears when I come near you?" He stepped forward again.

"Maybe I'm just allergic to you."

He stood so close that our chests were almost touching and looked down at me with an interested expression. I set my jaw and stared at him defiantly as Pan reached forward and slowly twirled a lock of my hair in his fingers. His face didn't betray any kind of emotion except a lukewarm annoyance and vague interest and I considered sticking my tongue out at him. His gaze dropped to my mouth.

No, I really should stick my tongue out at him.

Pan tucked the stray lock of hair behind my ear and heat rushed to my face again. "Perhaps you should stay in the shade today," he commented.

"Perhaps you should stop being so arrogant."

I was about to turn my head away in feigned disinterest when his warm hands settled on my hips.

Oh fuck.

He pressed his body against mine and I stared out past his shoulder, trying to ignore the heat radiating off of him. My nails dug into my palms and I focused on that, keeping a straight face and blocking out his breath on my skin and how much I wanted him to kiss me. I wouldn't give in. I wouldn't show that I wanted him. I wouldn't.

"Stubborn as ever, I see," Pan murmured. "Still, I like a challenge."

A thrill of anticipation ran through my body at the promise behind his words. I focused on keeping my breathing steady.

One of his hands left my hips and he tilted my chin up. "You can't even look at me." His voice was almost gleeful. "No, maybe this won't be so difficult after all."

Be neutral be expressionless oh god oh god…

His thumb brushed the corner of my mouth and I gasped, immediately thinking that I was done for, that he was going to kiss me and I would lose. Pan stayed still for several long moments before the warm pressure of his body suddenly vanished and I heard his receding footsteps crunch on the ground. I slumped shakily against the pine, angry with myself for wanting to go after him and shove him against a tree and watch as he froze in nervous anticipation of what I was going to do to him.

No. That was way, way too close. Pan was already acting like he won – and he might as well be if I didn't stop thinking like that. I whined in frustration at the thought of weeks or maybe months of this madness. Now way would I last that long. No way I wanted to.

That thought jolted me back to reality. I was slipping.

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