Alice led the boys to the bathroom, and she began filling up the bathtub with warm water. "Now, who wants to go first?" Alice asked. None of the boys volunteered. "Fine. Then I suppose I'll just pick one. You, with the fox suit. What was your name again?"
"Slightly." The boy frowned, either because Alice forgot his name, or because he was first up to take a bath, or both. He yanked off his fox clothes and dipped into the tub in his shorts.
"Here," Alice handed Slightly a bar of soap, "be sure to scrub with this to make sure all the dirt gets off." She helped him scrub his backside where he couldn't reach. Once he was done washing up, she drained the tub and gave him a towel to dry himself off. Alice picked up his fox clothes. "These clothes are even filthier than you are. They must be washed." Alice set aside Slightly's clothes to be washed later.
Next up was Nibs, and he went through the same process as Slightly. Then it was Cubby's turn, and then Tootles's. While she was washing Tootles, she asked the Lost Boys, "How come you want me as your mother so badly? What happened to your own mothers?"
"Some time ago," Nibs said, "I forget how long ago exactly, each of us got lost from our parents, and we couldn't find our way back to them."
"And just when we felt as lonely as can be," one of the Twins said.
"That's when Peter found us and took us to Neverland," the other twin said.
"I was the first Lost Boy to come to Neverland," Slightly said. "Then Nibs was next, then it was Tootles…"
"Then me," Cubby said.
"And then us," the Twins said.
"Do you remember your mothers at all?" Alice asked.
"Not really," Cubby said.
"Me neither," Slightly said.
"We just know that we had a mother before," one twin said.
"And we remember being happy," the other twin said.
"But we can't remember anything else," said the one twin again.
"That's why we want a mother so badly," Nibs said. "We lost our own, and we forgot what it feels like to even have a mother."
"Oh, dear," Alice said. "You poor boys. In that case, I suppose I can be your mother for as long as I am able to."
"You mean you'll come to Neverland with us?" Cubby said.
"At least for a little while," Alice said. The boys started to cheer, until Alice shushed them again. "Remember what I said? You can't let my family hear you. I'll be grounded for months if they find out." She drained the tub and got a towel for Tootles. She set aside his skunk clothes along with the others to be washed later. "But Neverland does sound nice. To never have to grow up would be a dream. And not a terrible dream like that Wonderland one."
"Huh?" Peter scratched his head.
"Oh, never mind." Alice began filling up the tub with water again. "It's just that my sister and parents are always telling me to grow up. They say I spend too much time daydreaming and imagining."
"What?" Peter stood up straight. "How dare they! In Neverland, we love to daydream and imagine. And the best part is, your imagination becomes a reality there. We do nothing but have fun all day."
"Yeah, we're one for all…" Slightly said.
"And all of us out for fun!" the other Lost Boys finished.
"Oh, that's wonderful," Alice said. "I can't wait to go there. But first we must finish washing up. Alright, Twins, you're up next." The Twins took off their raccoon suits and jumped into the tub, spilling some water out from the sides. "Oh, now look what you've done!" Alice said as she grabbed a towel and dried the wet floor.
"Sorry," the Twins said.
"Now, I don't believe I ever learned your names," Alice said. "I can't just keep on calling you 'the Twins.'"
"Well, my name's Meep," one twin said.
"And my name's Jeep," the other twin said.
"But nobody can tell us apart," Meep said.
"So that's why we just call ourselves 'the Twins' most of the time," Jeep said.
"Meep and Jeep," Alice repeated. "Well, I'll make an effort to try to tell you apart."
Jeep filled his mouth with tub water and spit it out on Meep's face.
"Hey!" Meep said. He then splashed water on Jeep. Soon enough, the Twins found themselves in an all-out splash fight in the tub, spilling water all over the floor.
"Boys! Boys!" Alice said. "Stop that at once!" The Twins stopped. "You've gotten the floor wet again! And even more so than before!"
"Oh, please don't be too angry with them, Alice," Peter said. "They've never had a bath in a tub before; they don't know any better. The only baths they've had have been in ponds back in Neverland."
"Well, then, can you all at least help me clean up all the water?" Alice said. The other Lost Boys all grabbed towels and helped Alice dry the floor. After they were done, Alice finally proceeded with cleaning the Twins in the tub. Once they were squeaky-clean, she drained the tub and dried them off. "Okay, Peter, you're next," Alice said.
"Huh? Oh, no. I'm not taking a bath."
"Oh, come, now," Alice said. "All the other boys have taken their baths. What kind of a leader would you be if you didn't follow suit?"
"Listen, I didn't ask for any of this mother stuff," Peter said. "The Lost Boys did, but not me."
"Why? Don't you want a mother, too?" Alice asked.
Peter scoffed. "Me? Want a mother? Yeah, no thanks." He burst through the bathroom door back into Alice's bedroom.
"What's wrong with him?" Alice said.
"Mothers are a touchy subject for Peter," Nibs said.
"But why?" Alice asked.
The Lost Boys all looked at each other. "Maybe it's best we don't get into it right now," Slightly said.
"Oh, all right," Alice said. "Then I guess we must get to washing all your clothes now." She filled the tub with warm water once again, and she dumped all the dirty animal costumes in. "You know, these are your dirty clothes, so maybe you should all help me wash them."
"But it's the mom's job to wash the clothes," Cubby said.
"Well, it's also the mom's job to teach her children personal responsibility. So come on, now, each of you grab a bar of soap and get to washing your clothes." The Lost Boys did just that, scrubbing their respective suits with soap in the tub. Once Alice inspected all their clothes and approved of their cleanliness, she drained the tub and ran the water for the last time to rinse the clothes. "There. All nice and clean. But now… oh, dear."
"What is it, Alice?" the Twins said.
"Well, it's just that… your clothes are soaking wet, and they probably won't be dry until well into tomorrow. But I'm sure you're all anxious to get back to Neverland now and don't want to waste another minute—"
Just then, Tinker Bell started bursting with excitement.
"I think Tinker Bell wants to tell us something," Cubby said.
The pixie pointed at the sopping wet clothes in the tub.
"I think she has an idea on how to dry the clothes," Slightly said.
"Oh, well, go on, Tinker Bell," Alice said.
Tinker Bell then started flying around the heap of wet clothes rapidly in a circle, and she started going faster and faster until she created a small tornado that swept up the clothes, drying them at an incredible rate. She stopped abruptly, and she seemed a little dizzy afterwards, but to everyone's amazement, the clothes were completely dry.
"Oh, how amazing, Tinker Bell!" Alice said. "You just saved us hours of waiting. I do thank you ever so much."
Tink shrugged as if there was nothing to it. She then flew back to Peter in Alice's room.
The Lost Boys all grabbed their respective suits and slipped them on.
"Hey, that's my suit!" Meep said to Jeep.
"Nuh-uh, this has always been mine," Jeep said.
"Now, no need to fight, boys; your suits look exactly the same," Alice said. "I'm sure it doesn't matter who wears which one."
"They're not the same!" Meep said.
"And it does matter who wears which one!" Jeep said.
"This happens every single time they need to put their clothes on," Slightly said to Alice.
"Yeah, just let them fight for a bit and they'll eventually sort it out," Nibs said.
After some more arguing and a few wallops to each other's heads, Meep and Jeep finally came to an agreement on whose clothes were whose.
As Alice and the Lost Boys went back into the bedroom, Alice said to them, "Well, I gave you all a bath. Now what do I do next as your mother?"
"You could tell us stories!" Cubby said.
"Do you know any stories, Alice?" Nibs asked.
"Oh, of course! I know lots of stories. There was the time I went to the Mad Tea Party. Then there was the time I met the Queen of Hearts."
"Do you know the story of Cinderella?" the Twins asked.
"Of course I know the story of Cinderella. You mean you don't know that story?"
"We knew it," Meep said.
"But then we forgot it," Jeep said.
"We wanna hear it again," they said in unison.
"And Sleeping Beauty!" Slightly said.
"And Snow White!" Cubby said.
"Oh, I see. You like fairy tales," Alice said. "Well, lucky for you boys, I know lots of them."
"Hooray!" they shouted.
"How many times must I tell you to be quiet?" Alice said.
"Sorry, Alice," Cubby said.
"Sorry," Slightly said.
They then heard Alice's father say from downstairs, "Alice? What's going on in there?" They could hear his footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Oh, dear, see what you've done?" Alice said. "Now he's going to come in here and get us all in trouble."
"Not if we go to Neverland first!" Peter said. He grabbed Tinker Bell and sprinkled some pixie dust on Alice.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Alice said. "How do we get to Neverland?"
"Fly, of course!" Peter said.
"But I don't know how to fly!"
"I gave you the pixie dust. Now all you gotta do is think of a wonderful thought. Then you'll be off the ground in no time. Come on!" Peter and the Lost Boys soared out of the bedroom window into the night sky of London.
Just as Alice was about to jump out of the window, her father came bursting into her room. "Alice! What on earth are you doing? Get down from there!"
"Think of a wonderful thought. Think of a wonderful thought," Alice said to herself. She then leapt out of the window and began to fall toward the ground. She thought of lazy summer days in the park. Big, tasty cake with pink frosting for her birthday. Dinah playing with her mother's ball of yarn. Suddenly, she lifted up into the air! She turned back toward her father and said, "Goodbye, Father! I promise I'll come back! Don't worry!" She then flew off to join Peter and the other boys.
Alice's father was completely dumbfounded as he looked on at his daughter flying off into the sky with a group of boys.
A/N: I'm not sure if it's blasphemous to give the Twins actual names, but I just had to, to make it easier on myself. It's much easier to refer to them by names rather than just calling them "one of the twins" and "the other twin". But I'm still keeping it that Peter himself can't tell them apart, so he never calls them by their names. Hopefully my names for them sound "Lost Boy-ish" enough.
Also, to any of you who have read my other fics not related to Peter Pan, I guess there's a... strange reoccurring motif in my stories of bringing up the story of Cinderella. It... isn't entirely intentional, more of a coincidence. There is a good reason why it is brought up here, and that's because in the original book/play of "Peter Pan", a major motivation for Peter to bring Wendy to Neverland in the first place is so she can tell the Lost Boys the ending of the story of Cinderella, since they're eager to hear how it ends. So, I thought I would pay a little tribute to that plot point here.