Disclaimer: I do not own anything Peter Pan-ish, and the like.

A/N. Does everyone know about the FABULOUS new Peter Pan movie that is in the making? It'll be released in theaters on Dec. 25th! Go to peterpanmovie.net to watch the trailer and see pics of the darling young man they've chosen for the title role. And Jason Isaacs as Hook, HOW could you go wrong with that?! You couldn't! I'm so excited!

Anywho, on with my story! ^_^ I haven't proofed it or anything, because it's waaay to much work in the wee hours of the morning. So please excuse any grammer/punctuation problems you may, and probably will, come across.

~***~

The eyes that peered in the door widened, some winced, and others closed in hilarious laughter as I struggled to sit up quickly and ended up tangling my legs in the blankets that covered me and gracelessly rolling off of the bed and landing hard on the floor, face down. The laughter turned to badly suppressed snickers as I groaned out nearly every swear word I could think of at the time…and for that early in the morning, I surprised myself with quite a few.

"You alright, lady?" one voice asked. My face was still making friends with the floor, so I merely scoffed and rolled over onto my back, looking up at a dark skinned boy standing over me and dressed in colorful rags. He cocked his head and grinned, offering me his hand. I closed my eyes and nodded slowly, running my hand over my face before extending it up to the boy. He grasped it and yanked me to my feet. The world tipped for a moment as my brain fluids sloshed around a bit, but righted itself soon enough, and I opened my eyes again.

"Hello," the boy said, and now shook my hand that he was still grasping firmly. He grinned at me, and I raised my eyebrow suspiciously.

"Hi…" I said slowly. I glanced behind him at the other boys who hung out just outside the doorway into the room. I raised my eyebrows in confusion and looked back at the boy in front of me who was still vigorously pumping my hand up and down.

"Me name's Grinz. S'yours?" He asked me in a thick accent that sounded nearly Australian.

"Er, Mary," I answered quietly. Grinz smiled widely at me again, and I immediately understood where he got his name.

"Well, ErMary, it's pleasen' to meet you! Sorry 'bout your rude wakenin', but Teak told us to make sure you got up in time to eat something with us."

Teak…ah. Teaken. Well, how kind of him to send four complete strangers into the room to scare the crap out of me first thing in the morning, the jerk. But I smiled at Grinz, and nodded. "Lead the way."

Grinz saluted sloppily and turned on his heel, the other three boys scattering as he marched through the door. I immediately tried to follow, but unfortunately, had forgotten to ever rectify the problem of the blankets around my legs. I took one step towards the door and stumbled. I pitched forward, and wind-milled my arms backwards, trying to recapture my balance. The three boys immediately vacated the air space around me, fearing the vengeance of my flailing limbs, and watched with wide eyes and baited breaths as I wobbled and fought valiantly against gravity.

Damn Isaac Newton, I was no match for gravity.

I fell forward through the door, and shouldn't have been surprised to see a knobby and uneven staircase there the way my day had been so far. I didn't even have time to scream, and a ball of knotted blankets gave a pitiful squeal as it tumbled down the crooked, narrow stairwell.

After many bumps and bruises and many un-Mary squeaks that I would later deny completely, I came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs as the blankets unknotted and I lay spread eagle on the floor on top of them. My chest heaving, I stared up at the ceiling as every bump and bruise began to make itself known. I winced and turned my head to the side, seeing Grinz sitting at a large wooden table. He was looking down at me, an eyebrow raised, and his mouth full of breakfast. He swallowed and licked his lips. "Hungry, are you? Most of us take the stairs with our feet instead of our heads. But hey, if that how you worlders like it..." he shrugged and went back to his breakfast.

I scowled and sat up slowly, testing my sore body for any serious injury. I winced as I ran my hand over my left shoulder blade. That would be a mean bruise, come tomorrow, but other than that, I seemed to be alright. I ripped the accursed blankets away from my legs and tossed them into the far corner. I stuck my tongue out at them for good measure, and looked up to more stifled giggles from the three boys that had been in my room with Grinz that morning.

NOT in the mood the be laughed at, I narrowed my dark eyes at them angrily. "Yeah, that's right, laugh it up! You won't be so giddy when I throw your asses OUT OF THIS TREE!"

Three pairs of eyes immediately widened, and all giggles stopped. I sighed in annoyance and sat down heavily across from Grinz. I winced immediately at that, and reminded myself that more than my pride had been bruised in that fall.

Grinz curled the side of his mouth at me, and I couldn't tell if it was in amusement or disgust. He turned towards the three boy-statutes and waved his hand at them. "Go find Teaken and tell 'im his princess has risen. And hurry up, will you? All this pissed off energy is ruining my appetite."

Ah, so it was the latter.

"Excuse me, my name is not princess, and it is not my fault that I'm a bit out of sorts. If you had any manners at all, you would know how to properly wake someone up, and it is NOT by standing over them and staring them awake! What the hell was I supposed to think when I woke up to four pairs of dirty boy eyes in my face?! So don't whine to ME about pissed off energy, because believe me Smiley, you haven't SEEN pissed off!!"

By this time, I was standing up, and leaning over the table, breathing harshly into Grinz's face. He hadn't moved however, and was looking back at me unimpressed, and chewing his breakfast. He rolled his eyes and picked up his bowel, walking from the room.

"No wonder Peter never wants to let us bring females back here. Crikey."

I sighed and sat back down, my face in my hands. The short silence was broken by a sound that reminded me of a wind chime that hangs in front of my window back in the penthouse. This sound was followed by a sharp pain in my head as my hair was violently yanked back.

"OUCH, damn it! That's IT! I'm throwing you all of the HIGHEST branch I can…find…" I trailed off as I stood up and whirled around, seeing no one behind me. I turned back around, searching the room for the guilty party that had just tried to scalp me, but could find not a soul even after bending and checking under the table. "Then, who…?" I trailed off again, remembering the tiny chimes I'd heard a moment before my hair had been savagely tugged on. I narrowed my eyes and slowly looked up.

Sure enough, a bright pulsing ball of light darted back and forth above my head, leaving a trail of tiny sparks in its wake. I couldn't help a small smile from tugging at my lips as I immediately recognized the twinkling light as none other than the fairy Tinkerbell.

That smile was immediately wiped off my face as the pixie darted right into my face and I caught sight of her own tiny visage. She was irked a bit, to say the least. I could see her mouth moving rapidly, and her miniscule cheeks were flushed pink as she gestured wildly with her arms, but all I could hear was tinkling bells that sounded much more serene than this fairy looked.

"Whoa, slow your roll, there, Tinkerbell. You are Tinkerbell, aren't you?" At this the fairy rolled her eyes dramatically. "I can't understand you."

At this, the pixie tossed up her hands in annoyance and zoomed from the room, loudly chiming the whole way. I shook my head and sat back down at the table. "Everyone around here is mad, absolutely off of their chumps."

"Yeah, well, your presence tends to do that to people."

I looked up as Teaken sat down at the table across from me. He didn't even look at me, just started directly for the food.

"Good morning to you, too." I quipped. Teaken merely snorted and began to peel what I guessed was some sort of fruit. It looked like a mix between a melon and a banana. It was yellow, but round like a melon, and Teaken peeled the skin off in sections, like you would a banana. He then took out a dagger from his belt, and cut the large fruit in half, placing one half on a plate in front of him, and the other onto a plate next to him, which he passed to me. I stared at it for a bit, and even ventured to poke it with my forefinger nail.

"What is this?" I asked, looking suspiciously at the fruit.

"Cantanana." He stated as he cut a large portion off and stuffed it into his mouth while watching me lazily. "Ifs goot. Fry fum."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Come again?"

Teaken swallowed his mouthful and licked his lips free of the juice. 'I said, it's good. Try some."

I stared down at the fruit in front of me, and gasped a little. The fruit itself was a bright red in color, but the juice that was gathering on the plate around it was a dark lavender. When I looked up at Teaken again, he was grinning at me a bit, as if challenging me to be brave and just bite into it like he had.

"What am I supposed to use to eat it, just my fingers?" I asked, looking around for and kind of flatware.

A dagger appeared over my shoulder before I could finish my complaint. I looked up, and saw Grinz smirking down at me. "Will this do, yer highness?"

I snatched the knife from him and scowled in answer. Grinz pulled a thatch chair up to the table from across the room and turning it backwards, sat down on it, resting his arms on the back of the chair. "You really got Tink's knickers in a twist already this morning, so thanks for that," Grinz said sarcastically. "She'll be in a right state all day now."

"I didn't do anything to her, why is she so mad at me?" I defended myself, swinging around a piece of cantanana on the dagger in my hand.

"You woke Peter up."

Teaken looked up sharply at that. "Peter was sleeping?"

Grinz nodded. "I know. Nearly five hours, Tink said, with no signs of waking til Queeny here put on her morning show."

"My name is-"

But Teaken shushed me with his hand. "So have you talked to him this morning? Seen him?"

Grinz shook his head. "Nope, I don't think he's come out of his room yet, or if he did, he took the back way, out the window that is."

Teaken sat back and sighed. "Well, I suppose that could go both ways…"

Grinz nodded, and stole a bite of my cantanana off of my plate, and popped it into his mouth. "Yep. Either he's better, or way worse."

I swallowed the bit of fruit in my mouth and wiped the juice from my chin. "What's wrong with him?"

This question had an immediate reaction in both of them. Grinz turned his head and glared at me, while Teaken sighed and placed his forehead in his hand, shaking his head back and forth.

"There's nothing wrong with 'im, it's you. Your world is what's wrong with him. You all are killin' him."

"Grinz, knock it off, she doesn't know."

Grinz whipped his head back around at Teaken, a shocked look on his face. "You haven't told her? Then how'd you get her here?"

"I've told her some things, so leave it for now, all right? One step at a time."

Grinz gave me an appraising look, tilting his head. "Well, if you don't know, then I guess you aren't responsible for your actions just yet. All right, Queeny, I forgive ya." He slapped me on the back then, and I spit out the fruit in my mouth and yelped, tears immediately sprung to my eyes as his hand hit the largest bruise on my back.

"Whoa, guess I don't know me own strength…" Grinz winced.

"Mary, you alright?" Teaken asked, his face rather confused.

"Oh, f-fine. Nothing a little morphine couldn't cure." I glared up at Grinz.

He turned his blank face back at me.

"What the she-devil is mor-feen?"

I rolled my eyes and pushed away from the table. "You guys got a bathroom around this place?"

"But you hardly touched your Cantan-" Teaken began to nag.

"I could really use a shower." I interrupted.

"But you just took one!" Teaken whined incredulously.

"Yeah, yesterday. But now it's today and I want another one!"

"Well it might not be such a bad plan, mate," Grinz said as he elbowed Teaken in the shoulder and waggled his eyebrows suggestively at me. "She should be at her best before she meets the man, if you know what I mean." He winked.

I stared.

"Grinz, she doesn't." Teaken reminded.

"Oh, right. Crikey. Well then, I'll just leave it up to you to sort it all out then, shall I?" Grinz nicked another slice of Cantanana off of my plate before climbing out of the window and onto a think vine. With the fruit between his teeth, he saluted sloppily, and slid down out of sight.

"Ok, so obviously I'm being left in the dark about something." I tapped my foot at Teaken.

"Like I said, one step at a-"

"Bullshit."

Teaken blinked at me, then ran a hand over his face tiredly. "Let's see about getting you that shower, shall we?"

~***~

"Oh you are not serious…"

Teaken had lead me down and to a small inlet of water a short distance away. He called it a 'cove'.

I called it fucking no way in hell.

"Take it or leave it," Teaken sighed, leaning against a tree and smirking at me.

"This…this is…just…no. There is no way. I mean, Teaken, there aren't even any trees." I huffed as I looked around.

"What the hell do you need trees for to bathe?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"For privacy, you pervert! I'm not stripping down for all of Neverland to see!"

Teaken chuckled. "You are if you want to bathe at all. This is the safest water there is for bathing. Like I said, take it or leave it. I have plenty of other things to do."

I looked wearily at the water, and quickly pulled back my toe that I'd dipped into the clear but rather to cold for my taste water. "What do you mean, 'safe'? You got some kind of flesh eating bacteria in it or something?"

"No, no. No bacteria. Flesh eating plants and animals, maybe, but no bacteria. Clean as a whistle." Teaken grinned at me.

I scowled back at him. "You think you're so cute, don't you?"

Teaken ignored my jab. "So what's it going to be Mary? I told you, I do have other things I could be doing."

"What's this got to do with you anymore? Go on and do your important business. I can find my way back to the tree. I can see it from here." I motioned towards the huge canopy that jutted up and above all the other foliage that lie between the cove and the tree.

"I can't just leave you alone to bathe," Teaken looked at me like I had just declared I was his mother.

"Oh really," I drawled, tossing him a dirty look. "How convenient for you. I thought you said this water was safe?"

"I said it was the safest I could bring you to. That doesn't mean it's safe. If I left you alone you'd be dead in three seconds."

"This is really convincing me to dive right in…" I clipped sarcastically.

"You can. As long as I'm here, you'll be fine."

"Oh, my hero." I rolled my eyes. God what a dirt bag. But I did really want a bath. I could feel how oily my face would be by afternoon…and my hair was dirty from sleeping in a tree. Yuck.

Beaten, I sighed and put my backpack down, getting out the essentials I had brought along with me. "Fine, but if I even think you're peeking, you won't be able to wank for a month, got it?"

Teaken scoffed. "If I did peek I wouldn't be able to wank for a month."

I raised my eyebrows at him over my shoulder as I unbuttoned my jeans. "That's not what you said at the nightclub…"

Teaken smirked. "I had to get you here somehow."

I rolled my eyes and turned back around. I put my hands at the bottom of my tank, preparing to pull it off. "I'm serious. No looking, promise?"

"Yeah, yeah. Get on with it, girl."

I quickly pulled off the rest of my clothes, hopped in the water, and shrieked.

Teaken whipped around immediately. "What happened?"

"It's cold! Turn the fuck around!" I shrieked again, dunking into the water up to my chin.

Teaken swore and twisted back around. "Don't scream like that."

After I had gotten my shivers under control, I poured a bit of my apple blossom shampoo into my hand and tossed the bottle back onto shore. I quickly lathered my head and then dunked underwater to rinse.

It was actually pretty nice, if I'd admit it to myself. If the water had been a bit less frigid, it would have been wonderful. I liked being able to swim underwater to rinse the soap from my hair. There was something very…I don't know…exotic about it, I guess. I tossed the conditioner onto the shore as well once I was through with it, and dove under the water again to rinse. The water was so clear, I decided to open my eyes.

Big mistake.

I shrieked and a thousand bubbles burst out of my mouth as I opened my eyes to see about five pair of eyes staring back at me. They all winced at my scream, and once the bubbles that my panic had created cleared, and I got a good look at what was surrounding me, I gasped.

This is something not to do underwater, I discovered.

Strong arms pulled me up through the waters surface as I coughed and choked up the water that my lungs had mistakenly taken it.

"Mary! Are you alright? What happened, are you hurt? What-"

"Mermaids!" I choked finally, desperately brushing the hair from my eyes.

I could feel Teaken's arms relaxing. "Mermaids? Is that all? You screamed because of mermaids?" Teaken growled in frustration and dropped me back into the water. "I swear to god, Mary…"

I choked and struggled back up to the surface, once again brushing my long dark hair out of my eyes. "Well…excuse me…if I…am not as used…to them as you!" I gasped out, fighting to tread water and get my breathing and heart back under control at the same time.

"They won't hurt you. Well, they might try, but I won't let them so just hurry up with your bath already!" Teaken leaned his forearm against the lone tree on the shore and rubbed his eyes and the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"I, I can't bathe with then here!" I whispered shakily. "With them staring like that!"

"We're not staring," a breathy voice to the left of me argued. "Why would we stare at something like you?"

"Oh, here we go," groaned Teaken.

"Excuse me?" I snapped. "Just what are you implying? And who are you calling 'thing'?"

"Although, your hair is rather…unique." Another voice from behind me purred, and I felt a slight tug on my scalp before I whipped around to face a shockingly blond mermaid. "I've never seen this color before."

"Yes, where did you get it?" Another hand pulled at my scalp a little harder, and I twisted around and grabbed a chunk of my hair out of the hands of a turquoise-haired mermaid.

"What do you mean 'where did I get it'? I was born with it. Now let me g-ouch! Hey, knock it off!"

"She is rather…pretty, I suppose." A voice like poisoned honey breather from in front of me, and I splashed around to face a mermaid with fiery red hair, the first who had spoken. "And you know what that means…"

"She must be one of his." The blonde mermaid scowled. "Only he can bring girls here. He must like her."

"Yes," hissed a new mermaid who had just surfaced, and was pushing her own vivid orange locks away from her face. "And we can't have him distracted from us. That's just not fair."

"Oh I completely agree, sister," nodded the turquoise-haired mermaid. "Let's drown her. Then he won't like her anymore. You know how he is, out of sight, out of mind…"

"I don't think so ladies. Not today." Teaken stood on the shore, his arms crossed as he smiled down at the mermaids.

"Oh, Teaken! I didn't see you! Why don't you come for a swim with us? You haven't been to visit in ages…" The blonde mermaid pouted prettily.

"I'll have to take another rain check, I'm afraid. We'll have to be going as soon as Mary is done with her bath."

"Mary, is it? Is she yours?" The blonde asked, swimming closer to Teaken and laying her arm on his leg.

Why that little tramp, I thought, moving to swim up to her, but then I remembered I was quite without apparel, and thought better of it. Wish I wasn't so modest though, because just as I had swum back a few strokes, I was pulled beneath the surface violently. I was twisted around to meet the face of the fiery haired mermaid who was smiling devilishly at me. I yelled for her to let me go, but she just smiled wider and motioned for me to be quiet. I looked up through the surface of the water and saw Teaken laughing at something the blonde mermaid had said.

She's distracting him so they can kill me! I realized, panicking. I began to thrash around beneath the surface as much as the mermaid would allow, but then I was restrained by another set of hands; the turquoise-haired mermaid had joined the drowning party.

My lungs were quickly beginning to burn as I wasted all my oxygen trying to thrash about and yell for Teaken, but the shallow bastard was now leaning down to pull a bit of seaweed from the orange-headed mermaid's hair.

My vision started to become fuzzy around the edges, and my eyes were becoming hard to keep open. My last thought before teetering on the edge of unconsciousness was how I was SO gonna haunt Teaken for this, until he went MAD.

But I never quite fell off that dark precipice and into death as I was jearked roughly up and out of the water. I could feel course sand grate across my back as I was pulled up onto shore. I could hear Teaken scolding the mermaids from what seemed like miles away…and his voice was had this weird echo thing happening to it as well…

"Mary? Are you alright?" He smacked my cheek lightly until I opened my eyes. I immediately turned away from him on my side and choked up water. He rubbed my back gently and apologized again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let them distract me like that. But they don't know any better, it's just a game to them. Mary?"

"God, I hate this fucking island so much right now…" I groaned as I lay on my side, naked and fighting for breath.

Wait, I was still naked…

"Teaken!" I cried.

"I'm here," he said immediately.

"I know. THAT is the problem!"

"What's the problem?"

"I'm not wearing anything at the moment…" I grunted out through a clenched jaw. Could I be anymore embarrassed?

"Oh, yeah, I…er…hadn't noticed. Heh…well, where's your bag, I'll get-holy shit…" he trailed off.

"What's wrong?" I asked quietly, curling my arms around my body to try and save a scrap of decency.

"Mary, what the hell happened to you?"

My brow pinched together in confusion. "Well, I almost drowned, but I thought you were present for that little spectacle…"

"No, to your back. And your hip, and your shoulder…fuck. You're covered in bruises." I shivered as he ghosted his fingertips over them. "When did this happen?"

"This morning," I winced as I sat up, my back to him. "I fell down the stairs. Now can I please have some clothes?"

"You fell down the stairs?" He asked incredulously. "Why the hell did you do that?"

"Oh you know, got bored of just walking down them everyday. Jesus, Teaken, I didn't do it on purpose. Your wonderful friends and their 'wake up call' just caught me a bit off guard, I guess." I mumbled as I picked up my bottles of shampoo and conditioner.

"Well, are you alright? I mean, other than the bruises, obviously."

"I'm dandy. Clothes!"

"Alright, alright. Keep your shirt on." Teaken chuckled at his own joke as he tossed my backpack at me.

"Not funny."

~***~

A.N. Well, I WAS going to have her meet Peter in this chapter. That was the plan. But then all this other…stuff…happened, and now it's 2:45 am and I'm tired. But I wanted to post something tonight, so I'll post this, and get crackin' on the Mary/Peter meeting in the morning. Deal? Great. Please feel free to leave me feedback in any shape or form! But, you know, preferably English…^_~