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Chapter Three: Peter Pan and Pierce

"What?" A hard and dangerous voice hissed from the shadows. What the fuck? Who the hell...Piper was frozen.

Felix didn't move but Piper could see the urge in him to step back. She didn't blame him. It took everything in her to not start cursing and scrambling away. What that kid just did, it didn't compute well with her brain. Piper was trying to figure out how in the ever-loving world the tall, shadowed figure managed to do just appear like that and the only thing that came to mind was...magic.

How is it, she has spent a lot of her life scorning people that made calf eyes at the moon, claiming magic was real and one day it would enter their lives? And now here she is, one of the biggest non-believers and magic is damn near bludgeoning her upside the head. Oh, Fate truly did love her wicked little ironies, didn't she?

"The shadow brought another boy." Felix reported, his monotone voice carrying an edge of respect to it. Piper half expected him to bow but he never did.

"Did he now? Well, let's have a little look, shall we?" The smooth, British voice asked, a sudden dark and playful edge to his voice. Piper glanced to the side, trying to gauge everyone's gathered reactions. There was awe, fear and respect. It glowed in all of the boy's eyes, nearly tangible with its strength. Piper had the sudden, dreadful realization she was in over her head. She was never going to drink again, not if shit like this was going to happen.

Piper looked ahead and she flinched violently, a ragged sound ripping free of her throat. Her wide, dark eyes were full of quickly hidden fear and shock as she stared at the guy suddenly standing in front of her.

He was tall.

That was the first thought that flashed through her brain. This guy, he towered over her and she wondered how that could be before realizing she was shrinking into herself. Giving herself a mental shake, Piper straightened and met him boldly in the eyes. He had pale skin and a gleaming, vicious, playful smirk on dusky pink lips and sharp white teeth. Piper's eyes trailed upward, taking in the pert nose, faint freckles and landed on his eyes. This boy, he had the greenest eyes she had ever seen. Shadows shifted in them as they glittered wickedly in the firelight, framed by long eyelashes. His eyebrows were sharp and defined and his hair was short, and an almost bronzed color; it looked windswept and soft enough that Piper felt the urge to run her hands through it...right before twisting her hands in it as he pressed her against a tree.

His body was lean and the dark green clothes hinted at muscles. His shirt was a worn, dark green vest held up by a dark brown leather belt. Underneath the green shirt, was a dark brown knit shirt that reached down to his elbows, leaving his forearms bare with the exception of thick, dark brown leather bracers that were laced up around his wrists. There were nicks and tears in the bracers but they seemed as though they would last a great deal longer. His legs were clad in dark green pants and he was wearing worn leather boots (without heels.) A dagger with a worn leather wrapped handle hung from his belt and Piper narrowed her eyes, ideas flashing through her head as she dismissed the attractiveness of this guy.

"Well now, it seems our newest Lost Boy is looking for a way out!" The boy called out mockingly, a cocky air hanging about him. He held his arms out wide, rather lot like Piper had done before the disastrous event that led to her being here...on Neverland. "Go for it." He twitched a dark eyebrow teasingly, his eyes glittering with a challenge. Piper stared at him for a moment, tensed up and tempted. Then she went for it...and landed on the ground as he simply...disappeared. "I didn't think you would go for it." The boy was behind her and Piper scrambled around as he suddenly looked dark as he prowled closer, crouching down before her, pulling his dagger out and dangling it in front of her face.

Piper clenched her jaw, narrowing dark eyes as she stared longingly at it. She doesn't need it. She has her own weapon...but he doesn't know that...and she plans on keeping it that way. Besides, any sane person that was kidnapped and brought to a new and strange land against their will would be looking for a way out. It would seem strange if she didn't go for the dagger. Still though, she hesitated.

"Go ahead." He taunted, daring her to try for it a second time. Piper allowed her eyes to linger on the dagger before a sudden, purposeful look was flashed at the boy she injured and she smirked, slowly and darkly at him. The boy paled, flinching back as he reflexively closed his hand protectively around the injured wrist. Then, ever so slowly, she connected her gaze with the strange guys and relaxed from her position on the ground.

The meaning was clear.

She was dangerous enough without the dagger. She didn't need a weapon to inflict damage...so she wouldn't go for the dagger. Not this time.

"Well, we have one with a brain. What a welcome change." The guy purred, flipping the dagger in the air and sticking it back in the sheathe. "What's your name?" He asked and Piper looked at him, slowly moving so she can crouch and then stand up. The whole time, he watched her with amusement, sharp eyes catching the slightest details. Piper wrinkled her nose at him, rolling her dark eyes deliberately before cocking a slender eyebrow and looking at him pointedly. "A Lost Boy with fire! I like it." His voice lowered dangerously, sliding like velvet in her ears. "My name...Is Peter Pan." He said, with all the air of a King.

Piper felt reluctant attraction to him but hid it swiftly. No way was she going to blow her cover for an attraction to Peter Pan.

Oh, if Cortez and Dolly could see her now...they'd be laughing their asses off.

"Now that I've told you my name, tell me yours before I lose my...patience." Peter Pan ordered, his dusky lips quirking up into a laughing sneer. Piper felt the urge to bristle but his attitude demanded submission. She had to fight every fiber of her being to lower her eyes and duck her head down in respect. Everything in her was screaming to stand tall and to never bow to anyone. How dare this arrogant boy demand she bow her head to him? Respect has to be earned. And this boy has not earned her respect, making it even harder for her to bow her head.

A glint in his eyes told her that he saw her struggle to show submission and the glee in his eyes made that ember burn in her chest until she smothered it in the ash of her emotions.

"Your name." His voice was harder and Piper forced herself to not react in any other way than tensing. She raised her hand, the blood almost glowing on her fingertips as she gently touched them to her throat. She chanced a glance up and saw the fascination in his eyes as he flicked them over to the boy she injured and the pieces joined together in his mind. "Interesting." He hummed low in his throat and Piper had a sudden fantasy flash through her mind of him humming for an entirely different reason..."Is your throat injured?" Peter Pan asked, focusing his intense green eyes on her.

Piper gave a quick, sharp nod of her head before holding frozen. Pan noded, humming again as he slide forward and reached out with one hand. Piper froze, her wary dark eyes locked on his hand as it drew closer and closer and...touched her neck. A low, strangled whimper slid out and the fear of being submissive burned through her veins. Piper had promised herself a long time ago that she would not bow to anyone and no one would ever hurt her or break her ever again. Yet here she is, at the mercy of this teenager who has such malicious glee in his eyes.

His hand closed around her throat and Piper was trembling, the shakes running through her entire body. The firelight gleamed, the light seemingly being drawn and drowned into her dark eyes. She looked feral, an animal trapped in a cage of its own making. Peter Pan looked at her with his head cocked to the side, the glee glowing in his eyes at being the master of this little game of defiance.

...and then the pain began to recede.

It didn't leave entirely, no, he wasn't good enough for that. Instead, the pain just faded only enough for her to be able to open her mouth.

"Back off." Her voice was so guttural that any feminine edge was disguised by the rough damage her voice had sustained. Pan looked at her with a challenge in his eyes but withdrew his hand, flipping the dagger up in the other and twirling it in his fingers with a cocky smirk. He was rubbing in the fact that he had a weapon- and one she wanted at that.

"A name?" He asked, almost idly as the dagger's blade flashed in the reflection of the flames. Her brain flashed through all the options. Obviously she couldn't use her own name, she would be caught out as a girl in a second. At the same time, she couldn't choose a name that she wouldn't react to. It had to be a name that was similar enough to her own that she would understand it was her when others addressed her by it.

What could she call herself?

And then she remembered.

What would you have called me if I wasn't a girl, mommy?

A low laugh rang out as a gentle hand combed through her hair.

Oh, my lovely little darling. Why do you want to know that?

A pleading look, made all the more angelic by the soft yellow light casting over the two lounging in the bed.

Very well, I never could resist your beautiful big eyes...I would have named you Pierce. It is a good name and it runs in my family. Your father's name on the other hand was J-

I don't care about him. Tell me more about your family. Please, mommy?

Anything for you, darling. Anything.

"My name is Pierce." Piper's voice, as horrible as it sounded (like she had a terrible sore throat...or had been screaming for hours until she wore her throat out), rang out clearly into the silent air.

"Well then, Pierce. Welcome to your new home...and welcome to the Lost Boys." Peter Pan leaned closer, pointing the dagger deceptively casually at her. "Felix will show you around, I trust you'll behave for him? No more...altercations. Understood?" His voice transformed and hardened instantly. Piper held his gaze before ducking her head down, clenching her fists behind her back in the effort to seem docile.

"Of course." She ground out, the harsh sound of her voice like rocks grinding over each other as they were crushed into a fine powder that would turn into cement. "I wouldn't dream of letting you down, Peter Pan." The passive-aggressive insolence was clear in her voice. As one, the boys sucked in breaths and silence rang out.

"No, you wouldn't want to. Trust me." His eyes glinted harshly in the flickering of the fire. "The results would be far from pleasant." And then, before anything more could be said or done, he was gone. He vanished, almost as though he had never been there.

And though even his footprints were missing, Piper knew he had indeed been there.

Because her throat still tingled from the grip he'd had on it.

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