Chapter 8
Peter
"Peter-" Curly cried joyously but was pushed to the side as Nibs stepped in front.
"-C'mon we can get out now, we got out on our own let's go kick some pirates ass!" Nibs finished and punched a fist up into the air rousing the rest of them to cheer a chorus of 'Yea'.
Peter only stood there stunned. He was frozen still and felt his body stiffen and his stitched pull uncomfortably tight. Seeing that Peter wasn't as excited as them the boys quickly realised something was wrong, the enthusiastic smiles quickly dropped into small frowns. They all leaned forward and stared at Peter questioningly, they didn't understand what was wrong because Peter had never acted like this before, it was scary.
Forcing himself to breathe Peter inhaled a ragged breath and forced himself to relax, his muscles which had been tense and rigid slowly became relaxed as he continued to breathe in deeply ; the stitches which caused much of the pain he felt also began to lessen as he relaxed, as he did this the boys still stared confused as to what was happening.
It scared them that Peter was acting like this as it had never happened before and they didn't understand why. Peter had never scared them before, at least not like this any time he had it was just hiding behind a tree and jumping out and even then he had laughed after... not now though, what was wrong?
"Peter... what's wrong?" Curly questioned nervously he reached forward to place a hand on Peter's shoulder and quickly retracted as Peter became tense again and flinched away.
"Peter..." Nibs began apprehensively, "Peter, ya scaring the boys... stop it, it's just us-"
"-Don't ya trust us?" One of the twins finished but quickly scurried behind the other, tail in his hands.
Peter blinked once more and stared at the boys in front of him, his boys stood huddled in a small group hiding behind Curly and Nibs who were staring nervously at him. He didn't know what to do he could shout for James but at the cost of his best friends and brothers or he could go with them at the cost of his protection that he knew he needed. Running through the woods would slow him down too so it was likely the pirates would chase them into the forest and catch them and how would they even get to land? Flying? That was a... difficult situation. But still if he called for Hook all of the pirates would just doubt him, then Hook would have to tell them or he could face a mutiny. The only option he saw was stalling and waiting for Smee.
The boys were still staring at him when he came into awareness, it was deathly silent except for all of their heavy breathing, never had Peter felt so much fear radiating from the boys and never because of him.
"Boys..." Peter began, clearing his throat with a loud cough. "Where were you being kept?" He questioned adding a small smile.
The boys seemed to lighten up slightly and grins appeared on their faces.
"The stinkin' pirates but us in the brig and left us there, in the mornin' two of them were givin' us water." Curly explained before shooting the others a grin and continuing, "Idiots left the door open and we knocked em out cold, there still down there." Curly high fived Nibs before Nibs took over explaining.
"We snuck up and none of them noticed us! We hid in the barrels and they were too busy listening to codfish to notice us. When we got here the door was locked but we saw a key on a barrel by the door. It was easy!" Nibs held up the small key and tossed it up in the air to show him.
Smee must have left it there for when he came back so he woudn't have to hold everything or loose it. Smee can't be long now... he cant keep stalling forever. The boys are naïve and innocent but they would know if I stalled, but it's my only choice.
"Peter..." Nibs asked, " Ya froze again."
He blinked again and looked behind Nibs and Curly, the Twins were no longer frowning but smiling and looking around, it seemed the hadn't quite comprehended that they were in Captain Hook's quarters, at times like this he was glad that they were so trusting and green.
"Peter, why are you in Hook's room?" The Twins asked in unison.
He decided to answer truthfully, " Because Codfish wanted to keep an eye on me, can't trust me." He added a smirk before finishing " But codfish was stupid enough to leave me alone, was gonna' escape anyway." He slipped easily into his improper speech and the boys looked convinced.
The Twins began wandering past him to a bookcase to the side of Hooks' desk, the bookcase towered over them as they began looking at all of the titles, even though they couldn't read meanwhile Curly had also wandered away to look at himself in the mirror and Nibs still stood in the same place observing from a distance, seeing no harm he allowed them to continue if only to keep them occupied. Smee better be quick, they could only be distracted for so long.
As if on queue the door burst open revealing an aggravated Captain Hook. All of the boys gasped in shock and quickly scurried towards Peter, Nibs and Curly were holding daggers and pointed them towards Hook. The pirate was also shocked, his eyes were blown wide and staggered back dumbfounded, Peter stood stiff as a board in the middle of the boys circle staring at Hook only slightly startled by the bang of the door.
Hook
The Lost Boys were stood in a protective circle around Peter, two held weapons while the rest were glaring angrily with fisted hands and bared teeth. Their likeness to animals when threatened was something he noted, they all had bared teeth like how wolves look when cornering their prey and Peter sat in their middle like the young pup that needed protection.
"On your knees, Pirate!" Nibs shouted glaring at Hook and waving his dagger closer with narrowed green eyes.
He looked to Peter once more and seeing him to be in the same boat as him and he could see the boy was relying on him to do something to take the boys away from him. The problem was... he had no idea what to do, doing as Nibs said was an option and knocking them all out and dumping them on land was appealing at the moment but dong it in front of Peter could make any trust he gained wash away, even though he didn't understand why he cared about Pan anyway.
Curly stepped forward and pointed the dagger closer to Hooks chest threateningly as if taunting him to move closer. Nibs followed his lead and also stepped forward with a pointed dagger where the others stood still in their places.
"Kneel, codfish... before a slice ya!" Curly hollered.
Before he could step closer and take the dagger which was held unstably by the Lost Boy he was greeted by Peter showing past the two boys an taking their daggers out of their hands.
"Boys, stop." Peter said calmly as he stood slightly away from all of them.
All of the boys and Hook stood looking confused at Peter. Peter stood breathing heavily with frustration, his fists were still clenched around the two daggers and he was staring at the boys.
"Peter" Nibs said nervously "Why did ya take our daggers?"
The boys nodded in unison in agreement while Hook still stood ignored. The door to the cabin had been closed and locked and bolted to avoid the boys running away.
Hook himself was quite interested as to what Peter would say, his act of being the same cunning and witty trickster had been holding well so far. The naïve children had fell for it and believed him to be their Peter but taking their daggers had set off all of their warning bells. Although this could be avoided and the repercussions may be bad the other ways could be worse.
"Because boys... I have something to tell you..." Peter began looking down at his feet, unable to look at the boys, "I've been talking with Hook and I decided on becoming a pirate."
The room was filled with silence. The jaws of The Lost Boys dropped as they stared with scrutinizing eyes. Hook too stood still in shock of the boys words. He wanted to be a pirate? Was it a ruse? A joke? Why would he want to be what he has been fighting for so long?
To be continued...
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Lucy
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