Disclaimer: "Newsies" doesn't belong to me, but you should all know that by now.

Straight On Till Morning: Prologue

All children grow up except one. I am talking, of course, about Peter Pan.

This was very unfortunate, for Peter was a fine-looking young man, and many girls had fallen a bit in love with him over the years. This led to countless endeavors in which one girl would try to lure him back into the "real world", as they called it. However, whether it was Wendy or Sarah or Jane, they all failed spectacularly.

What they didn't understand was that Peter was not an ordinary boy. They knew that he could fly and talk to fairies, but it was the heart that mattered, and there was a very important fact about Peter's heart that no one knew. You see, even though he thought it a very dreary place, something always brought him back to the real world. Peter, as clever as he was, could never understand why that was himself.

One day, however, when he came upon the house of Wendy's descendants, he understood. As soon as his feet touched the metal fire escape and he looked into the child's bedroom - for nurseries were only for the just born in America - he knew. The curious face that peered at him from the bed did not resemble Wendy at all. It was sharper, thinner, and the eyes were older. The dark waves and arching eyebrows were a far cry from Wendy's curls and sweet smile. But it was still familiar. Shockingly familiar, in fact, and for a moment, Peter thought he remembered something else, from a time long past dead.

"Who are you?" he had asked suspiciously, mistrusting anything that made him remember or even feel like he remembered.

"My name is Anthony," the boy said matter-of-factly. "You must be Peter Pan."

He gave a curt nod. "I am."

The boy's face brightened. "Awesome! Mom told me about you, and how you've visited all the kids in our family since great-grandma Wendy, but I thought she was joking. So you really exist, and you're not just a dream?"

Peter was confused. "How can I be a dream if I'm standing right here?"

The boy grinned at him. "Point taken." He clambered out of bed in blue pajama bottoms. "Are you gonna take me to Neverland?"

"Do you know how to clean?"

Anthony snorted. "Just look at my room. Do you think I know how to clean?"

The bedroom was indeed very neat. Peter couldn't help but suspect him more, for any boy who cleaned was immediately suspicious.

"All right, then. Do you know how to fly?"

"Mom's told me, but..." He shrugged. "I've never been stupid enough to try. Not without you, anyway." There was that brilliant smile again. "So are we going or what?"

Peter may not have understood the pleasant nausea that arose when he took Anthony's hand, but as they headed into the shimmering oblivion of New York's nighttime sky, something in him understood that his heart had been given once long ago, and it'd never been returned.

Terrible prologue, really, but it's one in the morning, and I'm tired. And I want to post. So here it is.

I know that the original Peter still had his baby whites, but let's face it... Spot had probably grown out of those. So, I have no other choice but to change that little detail. Hope you Pan fans don't mind too much.

The question about cleaning refers to the book, in which Peter takes Wendy's descendants for awhile every year to do his spring cleaning. And because I refuse to believe that all of her descendants will always have a daughter, I daresay that having a boy isn't much of a stretch.

And now I'm rambling, so I shall stop.

Good day.

Gothic Author

P. S. Reviews will be welcomed, of course. And TSB, I kept my promise.

P. P. S. To any who are wondering, I took "Blood Red Rose" down because I have found a better plot for it, so it shall be renovated. As I said, I've spent too much time on that damn thing to give up now.