Disclaimer: I don't own Peter Pan…not the book or the movie, nothing. (I wish, but sadly, no.)

PROLOGUE

Sometimes, leaving something can be the hardest choice to make. Wendy always wondered if leaving Neverland- and Peter- was the right choice. Each night she dreamed of going back to Neverland and sometimes- only sometimes- she thought she would see the flicker of a shadow pass along the nursery wall. The silhouette she knew so well. And yet; no matter how close the shadow dared to get to her, each time she reached out to it, it would shy away. There was nothing she could do. Sometimes she would be awake, restless, at midnight and see the curtains slightly sway. She would rise from her bed, and go to her window; hoping to see a glance of the figure her heart ached for- the strange little boy who had hidden there many times before. Hours, days, weeks passed. She had been there in heavy sheets of rain, and she had been there in the gently dancing snowflakes. But each year, sure as the crisp Autumn leaves would fall, she never saw him. She often wondered if he came back at all. Something inside her told her that he did, but as she started to grow up, she convinced herself that he would never come back- and that her dreams of Neverland were just as likely as her becoming the novelist she had always wished to be.

Yes, after the jubilance of their arrival home, Aunt Millicent had well and truly squashed those dreams; advising her in her journey to be a 'young lady'. She had taught Wendy to pin up her curls and to let down the hems of her skirts. She discarded all her ribbons and bows and taught her how to speak and how to sew. Wendy hated of this of course. She hated having to stand straight. She hated having to rest her hands neatly in her lap. And she especially hated having to attend parties for hours on end, chatting to the other young ladies. None of them seemed the least bit interested in her stories. They were more interested in the young men who were escorting them. They talked for hours about how they were dressed! Wendy often found herself dumbed into silence, nodding passively to their comments. It was often in these silences that she thought about Neverland the most. If there was a window nearby she might stare out into the endless blue sky- prickling with tiny diamond stars.

However, there was one thing that Aunt Millicent could not take away from Wendy. And that was her stories. She had none of them written down- except for in her head. And so, when the grown-ups had gone to bed and the candles were burning down, she would tiptoe across the hall and into the bedroom of her brothers and the lost boys. She would sit for hours, telling them her stories. She would throw out the words from her lips and weave them through the air with her hands. She often jumped from the bed to move around the room…she often confessed, that maybe it wasn't just that it added more excitement- it was that she was checking if anyone was listening from outside the window. Her words drew pictures in the air and as excitement mounted so would the volume of her voice.

John, Michael and the Lost Boys loved those stories! Their undoubted favorite, of course, was the one of their adventure in Neverland.

"Tell it!" Michael would tell from his bed: "Tell the one about Peter Pan and Neverland!"

The Lost Boys' eyes would shine, nodding eagerly. And so the story would begin. Of flying through the air, of the spine tickling mermaids, of the Underground cave, or the delicate fairies and of their triumph over the pirates. But of course, Wendy didn't tell the entire story. She didn't tell them about her dance with Peter in the fairy grove. And she didn't tell them of her dreams that he would come back to find them.

But after awhile, strange things started to happen. One morning the family woke up to find Nibs, the lost boy, had gone missing. The window was open and little to be found. Just a single acorn, a kiss from Peter, which Wendy took and added to her necklace. Searches were conducted for days, but it remained clearn in Wendy's mind that Nibs had returned to Neverland. But Nibs was not the only one they would loose. Soon after the Twins disappeared also. Another acorn kiss was left and so another was added to Wendy's necklace. Slowly all of the Lost boys disappeared, each leaving nothing but an acorn. Slightly was the last to go- he disappeared in the dead of the night, leaving little proof that there were ever any Lost Boys in the Darling house. And with them they took memories of Neverland.

And as for Peter Pan- he certainly didn't forget Wendy. In fact as the days went on, he thought of her more and more. And as he thought of her more and more, he visited her more and more. He would see her come to her window to stare into the sky, searching for him. But he would never reveal himself. He often let his shadow creep along the walls towards her- but lest she touch him, he moved away each time her hand stretched out. He had one by one persuaded the Lost Boys to return. Each one took longer than the last- each desperate to grow up and become famous for something or other- a famous engineer, a famous mathematician. Of course, Peter always won their arguments And as much as he would talk on end to each of the lost Boys, he never went as far to think of persuading Wendy to return.

And as she grew older she lost some of the magic of her storytelling. Soon al lher heroines fell in love. And then they grew up. Some even got married, some had children. For awhile this disturbed Peter- what would make her want her heroines to grow up…after all, growing up was stupid. But as the nights, alone, in Neverland became longer, he began to spend more and more time outside Wendy's window. And slowly (very slowly, but surely) he began to grow up until he was a teenager, just like Wendy.

Each night Neverland grew further and further away in Wendy's mind. Her acorn kiss necklace (which she rarely left the room without) she started taking off more and more, until she hardly wore it at all. And then the worst happened- she started to grow up. She began to pin her curls without nagging from Aunt Millicent. She began to walk with her head up. And she began to forget her stories. It became evident in her mind that if she didn't become a proper young lady soon, it may just pass by and she might never grow up. She attended more parties. She began to practice her conversation. And for all the time this took, she lost more and more time dreaming of Neverland. It was perhaps, a coincidence, that on the coldest day London had seen in years, she eventually decided that Neverland had been a dream. She stopped standing by the window at night She stopped leaving the window open. And she stopped wearing her acorn kiss necklace all together. Aunt Millicent was thrilled with her rapid progress and soon arranged for Wendy to see a young man named William. Like Wendy, William had wished to become a novelist but then all of a sudden grew up in a hurry. He was a 'suitable' young gentleman for Wendy to be seen with, concluded Aunt Millicent. And it was perhaps the fault of Aunt Millicent making this decision that changed her story

Back in Neverland the flowers still bloomed. The fern fronts were still green. The waves of the sea frolicked among themselves, causing no trouble. And it wasn't until nearly 3 years later, that Wendy's absence began to show. The Lost Boys first noticed it when the waves started crashing onto shore. But very soon, the flowers began to loose their color and sweep back into their pods. Peter became more and more lifeless- often spend his days searching aimlessly (what he was searching for the Lost Boys never knew) or even sitting in the underground hideout. Each night he would fly back to London. And he began spending more and more time there. Sometimes he would stay a whole day- and then he would stay a whole week hiding on the Darlings roof, spying on her at night. He saw her begin to grow up, and that is what began to upset him most. It is with growth, of course, that feelings develop. Infact it is when they are both emotional teenagers that the story really starts…

That's all folks...hope you like it! Please review, I don't care if you give me constructive criticism!
Thanks...Alie xox