SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN
Disclaimer: If you recognise it, it's probably not mine. Don't bother sueing me, I'm broke anyway. *grin* Eleanor and Lynn, however, are mine. You're welcome to use either of them if it takes your fancy, but please let me know. I'd like to see what they get up to.
Author's Note: I was inspired to write this story by a single scene which came to my mind after I saw the new movie. The scene was so vibrant and clear, it demanded its very own story. So here's the story. Hope you like it.
Oh, and for anyone who was reading my PotC fic (A Change of Heart), I promise I will have another installment up some time soon. I've been without a computer for a while, and it rather curbed my writing. This is a piece of fluff to get me back into the writing game again. :)
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Chapter 1: The Visit
Our story starts on a mild summer's night in a respectable London house, in a room with two beds. Oddly, the grander of the two beds held the younger child – the elder sleeping in a makeshift camp-bed in the corner. It was obvious to their watcher that they were related: something about the soft smile touching their sleeping lips that was too eerily similar to belong to mere acquaintances.
The watcher was a young boy with a crop of riotously curly hair and an impish grin. He had been floating just outside the open window, but now he allowed himself to drift through and settle on the floor. He cared nothing for the toys and books that littered the room and were scattered by his bare feet. Books were something he simply didn't understand, and most of the toys had no place in the sort of games he preferred. Crossing the room silently, he looked down at the younger girl in the large bed. Yes, perhaps she would come and play with Peter Pan and his Lost Boys.
Since the time he had taken Wendy Darling and her brothers to play with him in Neverland, Peter had realised that having a girl around could completely change the nature of the games they indulged in. It could be a lot of fun, although he'd also found girls to be much more complicated than boys and none of the playmates he had taken since then had stayed long either. But they stayed a while, and since Peter was only really concerned with the here-and-now he simply found himself a new little girl to join him whenever he felt the need for diversion.
He reached out gently and touched the girl's shoulder, snatching his hand away quickly as she sat up with a start. Before she could shout, he grinned and put a finger to his lips. "Quietly," he whispered. "It's a secret."
"A secret?" She seemed enchanted by the mystery of it all and kept her voice as low as his. "Who are you? And how did you get in here?"
Another grin. "I'm Peter Pan, and I came in through the window. Who are you?"
"Eleanor," she whispered back, her eyes darting towards the window. "That was a long climb, Peter... Pan? Wait... The real Peter Pan?" Her eyes widened as he nodded. "But I thought that was a story!"
Her voice had climbed with surprise, and the room's other occupant stirred and muttered sleepily. Peter put his finger to his lips again and whispered back, "I can show you a land better than any story. A place where you can play at being anything you want, for as long as you want! I can teach you to fly with me, and we'll run away to Neverland together."
"Can Lynn come too?" Eleanor cast a glance at the other bed, a small frown creasing her young forehead.
Peter studied the sleeping girl. She was clearly a lot older then his new playmate, and he frowned as well. "She looks grown-up. Our games are for kids."
Eleanor stifled a laugh behind her hand. "Oh, Lynn can play with us. She always plays with me when she's here, even though she's older. She makes up stories and we act them out before we go to bed."
It was mention of stories that decided Peter. He had first grown to know Wendy through her stories, and none of the girls he had led away since then were as good at spinning tales as she was. Perhaps this Lynn would know some good ones. He nodded, and the younger girl grinned and scrambled excitedly out of bed.
"Lynn, Lynn wake up!" Eleanor grabbed her sister by the shoulder and shook her until the elder girl sat up abruptly and caught her wrists. Before Lynn had a chance to protest the treatment she had received, she added in a rush, "I've just met Peter Pan! The stories are true! He wants us to go to Neverland with him!"
Lynn was up from the bed at once, eyes shining with her own excitement. "So it's true?" she breathed. "All of it? Neverland, and the Lost Boys... and the pirates?" Peter grinned and nodded. Perhaps she would fit in with them after all. This thought was borne out as she let out a quiet, "I knew it!" and threw her arms around her sister in a warm hug. "You can really fly? You'll teach us too?" she asked, turning back to him.
Laughing out loud, Peter sprang from the floor and settled himself against the ceiling. The two girls laughed with him, scurrying across the floor to stand under where he floated. Looking around the room, she spotted the twinkle of faerie light next to the window and zoomed over to snatch Tinkerbell out of the air where she hovered, watching them. She chastised him all the way across the room as he shook dust over the two below him, zooming away as soon as he released her.
"Just think happy thoughts," he bade them. "Just one happy thought is all you need to be able to walk on air!" The girls exchanged glances, grinned, and soon were bobbing alongside him with expressions of pure joy. Laughing with delight, he led them out through the window and across the night sky.