She hadn't been walking long before she felt a presence following her. Ignoring it, she continued, making her way through the trees, careful to step over the large overgrown roots and fallen branches.
She only stopped when she got to a clearing with a large tree in it, hearing the sound of waves crashing in the distance, the perfect spot for her to simply relax, but first she needed to take care of the person following her.
Turning around from where she was standing to stare at the tree, she scanned the forest not in the mood for the game when she wanted to fuss over Felix's anger. "Come out, I know you're there, Peter. I expected you to stay at the camp, what with the Truest Believer being in Neverland and all."
A quiet chuckle sounded from behind her as two arms wrapped around her waist, and she turned once more, allowing her body to be pulled against his chest. "You disappeared, love, I wanted to make sure you were alright." She sighed, looking up at his face, which showed a rare concerned expression, reserved just for her. A small smile tugged at her lips, unable to feel bad when he was around, replying, "Felix is acting strangely, you didn't do anything to upset him, did you?"
"Now why would I do that?" Peter asked mockingly. She punched his shoulder, glaring halfheartedly at his smug smile, though it wasn't long before she was laughing quietly, the sound like bells, causing a triumphant gleam to appear in Peter's eyes. "But, no, I don't believe I have," he answered in a more serious way.
He began pulling her towards an intricately carved wooden bench– he had made it for her when she had begun to spend more and more time in the small clearing– that sat under the tree, pulling her against him, wanting her to relax. She followed willingly, and they sat in silence for a few small moments before she turned, resting her cheek against his shoulder and fully curling into his side as his arm around her waist tightened. Her fingers lightly traced random patterns over his shirt, as she looked up at him, wondering about his evening. "How did it go with the savior?" a soft, genuine smile grace his face as he stared at the constellations with his Lost Girl in his arms– comfortable– beginning to explain the events that had transpired at the enemy camp grounds.
She recognized him based on the descriptions her brother gave her, though she had to admit that saving her life seemed a little out of character, nor was it mentioned that the boy was this handsome. The boy smirked, "So I am. Glad to see my reputation precedes me. I didn't realize that I was famous." He gave a dramatic half-bow in his kneeled position, something that should have been awkward, but he managed to pull it off.
She huffed, quickly becoming aggravated with his arrogant personality. "That's not what I meant and you know it," she snapped, "why the hell would you save my life? You're supposed to be a villain, and the tales that I have heard did not make you look good." As she said all this she realized just how rude it sounded, and her eyebrows pulled together as she knew that it was never as black and white as it seems. Maybe Pan was different too, she considered. Her brother could be immensely bias sometimes.
She was brought out of her musings when he spoke once more, his tone mocking. "I may not be the most 'well-behaved' boy on the island, but I am not that cruel." She wasn't sure that she believed him, but knew she still owed it to him to express her gratitude. "Well, thank you for saving my life, I guess," she was new at this apologizing-to-a-villain thing.
"Anytime," he replied, "I don't believe I got your name."
"You didn't, because I didn't give it."
"Well then, what is it? Common courtesy to share yours when you have mine."
She raised an eyebrow at his statement but clicked her tongue quietly as she weighed her options. On one hand, she knew that in some cases names could be quite powerful, but on the other, it was impolite, bad form as her brother would say, and she did already know his.
Making her decision, she held out her hand to the boy, a strained smile appearing on her face. He took the proffered hand, giving it a shake as she introduced herself, "Reyna Jones."
While the Charmings tried to figure out the key to the map– a decision Regina had lost one to four– she and Hook tried to come up with a plan to get their hands on the girl Pan would supposedly protect unlike anything else. Regina was careful to always keep an ear on the Charmings, not believing: 1) a word that comes from the immortal boy or 2) that Emma could figure it out if there was really a map.
Hook did not seem enthused to be plotting to capture the girl, in fact he had originally tried to deter them from that path, but he was overruled, two to three (Snow didn't approve of kidnapping to get what they wanted, but David agreed with Regina and Emma that it was their best chance). "You act like know him best," Regina said irritably, "why don't you just tell us how to get the girl and convince him to trade Henry for her life?"
"It won't be easy, and there would have to be a really good distraction for there to be a chance of her being alone, unless we can catch her while she goes hunting, if she does, which she doesn't," he said unhelpfully. "It is all just a game to him, lass, he doesn't think that he could possibly lose, he's playing us, it would be impossible to get ahead of the demon long enough to catch her," he finished pessimistically.
Regina, whose patience was already being tested by the pirate beside her, was pushed over the edge at the sound of all the useless information the savior was trying to use to unlock the map.
Storming over to her, the queen tore the parchment from her hands, holding it up before waving her other over it, making it glow gold with magic.
David, who had gotten to his feet like the rest of them, asked, "What are you doing? I thought we agreed using magic wasn't a good idea."
Hook added in, "For once, I agree with the prince." At David's incredulous look he added, "What? I told you we were getting along."
"What the hell is that?" Emma questioned looking uncertain of Regina's actions.
"A locator spell. This parchment belonged to Pan, so it will lead us to him."
As she released the paper, it hovered in the same spot for a second before starting off into the last place Hook said they ever wanted to go, the Dark Jungle. With one last moment of hesitation, Emma led them after the glowing paper.
What had started as a tactic of getting back at his long term archenemy quickly became something all together, and Peter wasn't sure how he felt about these new revelations. While he could usually kill, torture, or imprison anyone without hesitation, there was something about the young Jones girl that seemed to break through to the Lost Boy inside of him, something he adamantly denied was there (and would continue to do so for the rest of his immortal life).
All of the Lost Boys, including Felix, surprisingly enough, had taken to the first ever girl, whom Peter, though he wouldn't admit it, didn't have the heart to put in a cage as he would any other hostage. She had only been at camp for seven days and already she had impacted the entire island. It was odd the way more plants bloomed and the sun shone longer, especially if one knew that the island was tied to Peter's emotions (Only he and Tinkerbell, who stayed well out of the way, knew for certain, though Felix had his theories).
Perhaps the most surprising to the boys around camp was that, unlike what they had originally thought, the girl wasn't inferior to them. She could hunt, beat almost all of them in a sword fight, cook a delicious meal (they hadn't eaten 'slop' at all since she had arrived), and was a pretty good shot with an arrow. She was fast and quick-witted, making a good strategist. Peter kept a close eye on her, simultaneously avoiding her like the plague, unsure if she would try to escape and find the pirate captain, whose relationship with the girl was unknown to him, though he knew they were related directly, whether it be father, uncle, or brother.
At the end of the third day, Peter found himself confronted by his second-in-command.
"The girl, she is growing on you, you are starting to become attached," Felix accused in a cold voice.
Peter automatically refuted the claim, scoffing at the very idea of having any sort of feelings for anyone. "Honestly Felix? The girl is beginning to trust me and I plan to keep it that way, I do want my revenge on the drunkard of a pirate. Good to see my acting skills are as good as ever."
Felix stared at his leader in disbelief before shaking his head, "You can try and convince yourself of that Pan, but I can see the changes she's made in, not only you, but the island as well."
Pan glared as the blonde, "Don't over step your boundaries or speak out of turn Felix. Remember the last time you disobeyed me? Would you like a repeat of the lesson?" Felix shook his head vigorously, no longer thinking it wise to provoke Pan. "Good. Now get back to work Felix, we have a pirate to capture and a boy, a heart, to find."
The couple had returned to camp hours later, though most of the boys were still up, showing no signs of stopping. Henry continued to mope in the corner, not joining in the celebration of nothing in particular.
Suddenly remembering the scene when he had arrived back at camp, he turned towards the girl who was holding his hand. "Did the boy, Henry, say anything to you when you were talking to him, love? I have got to say that he was rather wary of speaking to me, we'll just have to change that, of course."
Reyna, who had been staring at Felix, who was now tying flint to the top of sticks to make arrows, with a concerned gleam in her eyes, looked up at Peter to answer his question. "Nothing of use, he told me of his family that would be coming for him, and that he didn't care what you were up to, he wouldn't help you. Nothing that seemed unexpected or would get us any closer to the end game. I did most of the talking."
Peter nodded his acknowledgement, before tensing as he felt an alarm going off in the back of his mind. His face fell as he sensed what was wrong, only for his anger flare, "Someone's not playing by the rules."
"The savior?" Reyna questioned.
"They're using magic; don't they know cheaters never win?" Peter cupped the back of her head in his hand, tilting her head up for a hurried kiss, before squeezing and releasing her hand, heading towards his second in command, a scowl on his face.
Huffing in frustration, she began storming away from the two who were clearing plotting on how to teach the cheaters a lesson, in favor of heading in the direction of Henry. While Peter was on the battle front, she would be doing the dirty work, behind-the-scenes, convincing the Truest Believer to not only trust Peter, but be willing to help him, no matter the cost. She knew that if she left it up to Peter then they wouldn't get anywhere, so she decided to step in, and the earlier the better, because they didn't have time to lose– whether Peter wanted to gamble his life to make the game more elaborate or not.
"Hello, Henry," she greeted once she was close enough, making the boy jump slightly, having not expected company. "Hey Reyna," he replied looking cautiously up at her, his eyes darting around to track Pan. "Oh, don't worry about him. He's off talking to Felix about the next hunting expedition," she lied easily. Henry's eyes lingered for a moment before looking back at Reyna, nodding slowly as he seemed to accept her answer, seeing no reason to not believe her. "Any reason you aren't joining the rest of the Lost Boys?"
She expected Henry's next statement before he even said it. "I'm not a Lost Boy, my family is coming to find me, and Pan will be defeated," he argued.
She sighed; this would be harder than she thought. She knew that Peter would have to break his hopeful spirit, dissuade him that his family was coming, and a part of her felt bad for the brunette boy in front of her.
But she forged forward. "Perhaps they will, but you know, Peter isn't the enemy, and as for defeating him, I am not so sure that will happen. Peter, he's a little rough around the edges, sure, yet there is a part of him that I think you would like if you would just overlook the fact that he is categorized as a villain. Think of your mum, the Evil Queen. She's not really evil anymore, right?" She could see Henry's mind working to process what she had said, so she stood up, planning on leaving him to mull things over while she found out the plan from Peter.
"I used to think of Peter the same way you did. Actually much, much worse. I'm not saying to fall at his feet and follow his every command, just think about it. Maybe, like me, you will see that there is more to him. Things are never as black and white as they seems. Maybe Peter is different, he just got a little lost in translation, stories are often bias towards the 'heroes'." With that, she left the boy sitting there, gears turning in his mind as he considered that, just maybe, she had a point.
Reyna was sitting next to the fire, curled up as it was a particularly chilly night; it had been getting progressively colder on the island the longer she was here.
She had been at the camp for about a month, she had lost track, and had long since lost hope of her brother coming for her, not that she thought he would in the first place, there wasn't much love lost there in her opinion. She found that she was actually enjoying herself at the boys' camp, not at all feeling like a prisoner as she would have expected.
Pan had left her to her own devices for the most part, any encounter (after the first week) they did have ended with violence and shouting, before they would storm off in opposite directions.
Minus him, the other boys seemed to enjoy her company, as she did theirs, and she enjoyed sparring and sharing stories with them– one of her guilty pleasures had become listening to stories about Pan. She didn't partake in hunting (often), preferring to cook a meal from what they collected. Even Felix had thawed a handful of days after her arrival, and while their relationship was still not as friendly as it could be, they were growing on one another.
She felt something heavy fall onto her shoulders, cutting off the cold air that had been penetrating her thin top. She looked up to see what had landed on her and who had given it to her. Much to her surprise, Pan stood over her, looking uncertain, though slightly concerned (if the emotions swirling in his eyes were anything to go by), as he stepped over the back of the log and settled into the unoccupied seat next to her. Staring for only a second longer, she looked at what he had laid on her shoulders, noticing that it was a blanket of the sorts; though where that fabric came from, she didn't know.
"You looked cold," Pan said, answering her thoughts and breaking the silence, which had, shockingly enough, not been uncomfortable. He was staring at the fire, his jaw set, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands intertwined, his back hunched over them. She couldn't stop the soft smile that came to her face, despite the usual glower she was always willing to spare him. "I was, thank you."
"Yes, well, I can't say I understand the sudden cold front that has come to Neverland, but couldn't have our guest of honor freezing, now could we?"
She laughed, for perhaps the first time in years, rolling her eyes at the comment. He looked up for the first time, a smirk pulling up the corners of his mouth. She looked more beautiful in that moment to Pan, her glorious violet eyes shining with happiness, a song, both heart-warming and heartbreaking, made from her laugh, something he knew right then and there that he would do anything to hear as often as possible. Her face, though extremely pale, lit up in her joyful emotions. The faint freckles, an odd graying color in her pigment-lacking skin, touched as her nose wrinkled in a move he found absolutely adorable. Her mouth was pulled up, open in a not so lady-like way, revealing perfectly straight, white teeth.
She quickly schooled her emotions, clearing her throat as she calmed, realizing that she had just been laughing at something Pan said, the boy whom she had hated for the majority of her life. She noticed that Pan was staring at her, an odd look on his face, his eyes slightly dilated and dazed. Confusedly, she waved a hand in front of the seventeen-year-old's face, all the while saying 'Pan' to get his attention.
With a shake of his head, he refocused on her, disappointed to see her serious once again, though his face didn't show it. "You okay?" she asked hesitantly, for once not eager to fight with the immortal. The boy in question raised an eyebrow, his arrogance beginning to rear its head once more. "Of course, love, why wouldn't I be?" he said rhetorically, mocking her with a tone that only made her face fall farther. Her nose scrunched in distaste at the pet name, only making Pan's smirk widen.
Pan suddenly got to his feet, looking down at her. "Well, this was a wonderful chat, but I must get going, that is as long as you won't miss me." What he wanted to say was that he would miss her and make sure she would be alright, but he wouldn't be himself if he did that, right? He had a reputation to up hold.
The girl offered a small smile, the gleam in her eyes telling him that she noticed the lack of meaning behind the spoken words. "Promise. I'll actually probably try to find Felix or get some sleep, and believe me, you'll be the farthest thing from my mind."
While her tone was teasing, which on its own surprised him, he couldn't help the pang he felt thinking that he wouldn't be on her mind.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he remembered he had a few prisoners to 'talk' to, a sinister smile coming to his face as he forced his thoughts away from the girl he had just turned his back on.
She watched his retreating figure until he disappeared in the tree line, snuggling more into the blanket that warmed her, an easy smile on her face as she thought of the fact that they weren't at each other's necks, nor did she try to strangle him. It shocked her that he was actually nice to her, and she didn't know about him, but if he was truly like that, she may not mind his company. She considered, as she drifted off to sleep in one of the hammocks that the Lost Boys put up, that, just maybe, he wasn't just the inconsiderate jackass she made him out to be.