CH 8

Heero was marching proudly beside Pan when the lost boys arrived at the Indian campground. Peter was promptly pounced upon by a feisty lil Chinese girl.

"SUBMT TO NATAKU, WEAKLING!" She shouted.

"Get off!" Pan pulled the girl into a half nelson. Once Pan was victorious the two hugged and greeted each other warmly.

A tall, thin, rather sagely looking man had approached. Heero thought he looked like "Nataku"s father. The sage gave Peter a solemn nod. Peter responded with a low bow before taking a knee, and all the lost boys mimicked their captain.

"A little bird told me" Peter winked at the sage before continuing, "that you and your warriors tried to steal our mother."
The old man closed his eyes and nodded, "There is no trying, only doing."

Pan grinned, "Well we came to thank you! We've been trying to get rid of her!"

There was a rustle in the bushes, and a chibi announced something about a pointily eared troll in a bathrobe spying on them again. The sage cursed under his breath (something about plagiarized wisdom in star wars) and glared at the bushes.

"Peter," Nataku whined, "We never liked her, but we're too polite and traditional to say anything to you against your unorthodox mother."

The sage confirmed his child's statement with a nod.

"What did you do with her?" Pan rose from his knees and looked to the sage with curiosity.

The sage's response was unapologetic, "We sold her to the pirates."

"Ah…why?"

"They initially hired us to abduct her."

Peter let out a groan, "Adults! Always outsourcing the FUN part of a scheme… I'll never understand!"

A few chibi's cheered or shouted an insistive, "Here! Here!"

"Oh Peter!" Nataku took Pan by the hands, "You all must stay for dinner!"

Pan gave her a wink, "Well that'd be swell, eh boys?"

The lost boys agreed that it was a great idea as they stood. The sage smiled a wide smile and stepped aside to invite the boys in.

"Oi! Peter!" one boy shouted, "What about the sleeper?"

Peter pointed to the sage, who pointed to a pile of hay. Heero watched as a couple of boys hauled and unconsious Duo toward the hay, before casually dumping him "close enough". Heero suddenly felt a sharp pain and thought about Duo looking scared and covered with glitter, sprawled in some dark hiding place. Every nerve screamed for Heero to protest to Duo's sloppy handling, but Heero wasn't sure why. It had never bothered him to see any of the other lost boys roughly handled. Heero scowled, "Duo?"

Pan grabbed Heero's hand, "C'mon, Heero!" Heero let his captain lead him into the settlement, as he tried to remember more about Duo. In the flashback, where were they? Why was there glitter? No. Wait. No. Was it snow? Why as Duo covered in snow? The details fled as quickly as they had come… Heero frowned. What had he been trying to remember? It was gone.

"Heero!" Pan shouted.

"What!"

"Do you want this or no? How many times to do I have to ask?"

Heero took the pipe Nataku was offering him and mumbled a thank you.

Heero took a drag, "Peter, have I met that boy with the braid before?"

"Which?"

"The boy with the braid."

"What's his name?"

"I forget.."

"What does he look like?"

"Uh…"

"How tall is he?"

"I'm not sure."

"What about his eyes?"

"Uh.. he has two."

"Oh. Good. Do you remember anything specific at all?"

"No. just that he has a braid."

Peter feigned confusion, "I dunno him. I don't know how you would."

"Yeah, I dunno. Forget it."

"Done."

Heero was getting sleepy from the smoke, and he decided to stop talking. It felt like all his senses were slowing down, while he watched Peter lean over to Nataku and ask her to go "take care" of something. Heero watched Nataku walk off, amusing himself with thoughts of her as just a floating head, and then he decided to close his eyes for a while. Heero thought about the whole scene happening again in slow motion, something he found extremely funny for no specific reason.