Tenshi-san: I have gained a reader. Thank you Compass! I'm glad you like the fact I kept Peter as a boy. Who said he couldn't be cute? Look at Jeremy Sumpter, he's adorable. And you to can get your name listed if you review! So say what you think, I'm a big girl and can take it if you think my writing sucks.

"Miss Leonhart, why don't we just call a spade a spade?"

"Because I don't... I don't love him. Not like that." Peter shifted, threw a leg over the arm of the chair and asked a question.

"But you love me?"

She smiled, but it was sad. "Yes. But... not romantically."

"I think you mean not sexually. Because you don't love him like a mother does, or like a younger brother. You don't want him in your bed." Said Dr. Ginner.

"I don't know... It doesn't matter, all that matters is that I help him."

Dr. Ginner studied Peter. "How do you feel about the fact she loves you?" Peter met the gaze with steely eyes.

"Love?" Peter turned to Lili. "I have never—"

"Don't do it, Peter. Don't go there."

"I have never heard of it..." Peter snapped out.

"Not everyone you love abandons you, Peter." She said.

"The very sound of it offends me."

"Peter!" Lili looked at him, her eyes large. "You can lie to yourself all you want, but you cannot lie to me."

"Why should I love? I loved my mother, and she closed the window. There was another boy in my bed!"

"I'm not your mother."

"You left too."

Dr. Ginner smiled. "She may have left, but I have some information you both may find interesting. Lili tried to get back out her window."

Peter quickly turned back to face the doctor. "She did?"

"I did?"

"Yes, your mother was convinced you had invented Peter and the Neverland to repress the real memories of what happened in the year you were gone. She was adamant in her belief that hypnotism would bring the truth forward." Sighing, he finished. "Lilith, your mother is..."

"Against everything that grates against her... beliefs? I know."

"It's Lili. Her name's Lili, not Lilith." Peter said, back to lounging in the chair.

"Lili." Dr. Ginner smiled again. "Yes, I know, she was very adamant the last time about her name."

"It's Lili. He's right. He usually is." She shifted uncomfortably, "But please get to the point."

"Of course. Even under hypnosis your story didn't change. Do you remember what happened the night you returned?"

"No."

"I... do..." They looked at Peter, "I stayed to watch, because maybe... I thought she'd change her mind. Lili turned back, and started to run for the window but... her mother caught her, and closed the window..." Lili got up to kneel before him, "It hurt, when the window closed. It never hurt before... not like that. I remember you just... went limp. And she took you out of the room. I broke the window."

"She took Lili to the hospital. Numerous tests were run, from rape tests, to blood tests, everything she could think of. Nothing came up, aside from slight malnutrition, Lili was perfectly healthy. But asleep."

'I remember that. I came back again, and opened the window. But she wouldn't wake up."

"Yes... well, that may have been later. I remember something of a break-in in the house a month after Lili returned. Mrs. Leonhart drugged her, said Lili kept having hysterics."

Peter glared, but at no one in particular. "Well, now her mother can't keep her." There was a note of pride in his voice, a certain bit of cockiness. "She's mine."

"Well, here is your file, and everything you said under hypnosis. I wish you luck in whatever it is you're doing."

They stood, and Lili offered him a hand. He grinned and took it.

"Peter?" Peter turned to look. "Why did you choose Lili?"

"She was lonely..." he grinned, "And she told the best stories!"

"I'm hungry."

"I'll make something to eat when we get to the house..."

"Did you find what you wanted?" Peter studied Lili.

"Yes..." Lili watched the ground as she walked.

"You didn't want to know, did you?"

"What, that my mom stopped me from going back? That she hurt us? No, I really didn't want to know."

"It doesn't matter. She can't stop me now." Peter smiled, "I don't need to worry about losing you."

"Home is with you..."

"Hasn't always been?" he asked.

Back at her house, Peter yawned. "If your tired, go take a nap, lunch will take about a half hour to cook."

"What if your mother comes home?"

"I'll deal with it." Lili shooed him away, "Go, you haven't been sleeping well lately."

"Stop mothering me!"

"Go to bed." Peter glared, and headed upstairs, he turned. "If you would have woken up, would you have come with me?"

"Yes. If you wanted me so badly, why didn't you just carry me back with you?"

"I'm not a kidnapper."

Peter promptly collapsed on Lili's bed. Whether or not he didn't like being mothered, he was tired, and as he buried his face into her pillows, he realized it was nice to have a place he felt safe. For once he was safe, surrounded by things that smelled of her. Lili smelled, he thought faintly, of cinnamon and the beginnings of rain.

Downstairs, Lili messed with some pans, and started heating soup and getting the grilled cheese sandwiches ready to cook. She could have made something that took less time, but frankly being able to be able to cook on modern equipment was pleasant all on its own.

It's not as if she was trying to impress anyone.

While Lili puttered around the kitchen, finishing and letting the food cool a bit before going upstairs, Lili's mother was ghosting around. She traced a hand over the door, and then turned the knob.

Imagine her surprise when she was not greeted by an empty room, but a boy asleep in her daughter's bed, head buried in the pillows, one arm draped over an ancient teddy bear. She stalked into the room and pulled him up by one arm, shaking him awake.

Peter's eyes snapped open, wide, and green as emeralds or a good thick coating of moss. Humans do not have eyes that particular shade of green, devoid of any blue tint. His eyes were cat's eye green. He gasped.

"Who are you?!" hissed Mrs. Leonhart, shaking the boy.

"Peter! Mother, let him go!" Mrs. Leonhart spun at the sound of her daughter's voice, pulling Peter with her. The surprise made her relax her grip on his arms, and he pulled away, running to Lili and burying his face in her chest. She slid a hand through his hair, and whispered, "Shhh... its ok."

"Lilith."

Peter turned, baring perfect teeth in a snarl, "Lili! Her name is Lili!" He kept a grip on her waist.

"Mom... can we go to the kitchen? Lunch is getting cold."

In the kitchen Peter ate, while not happily, but with zest. He was on his best manners, and studied Lili's mother. He didn't like her much.

"Why did you come back?"

"I needed to collect some things." Lili watched her mother. "You sound disappointed that I came back."

"Why would I be disappointed my daughter returned from God knows where with an unknown boy. Who is he?"

"He's Peter. An old friend..."

"Isn't he a bit on the young side?" Raina Leonhart raised her eyebrows, "I know you had this fascination with jailbait, but he barely looks twelve."

"It's not like that. Yes, I suppose you could call him my boyfriend, but only because he's a boy and a friend." Lili sighed and looked away. "Don't think very highly of me, do you?"

"And he held your hand when you came downstairs. Boy, how old are you?"

"Quite young." Peter smiled sadly, "But older than I used to be." Lili smiled at him.

"Quite young? You don't know how old you are?"

"I ran away when I was small... I don't remember much from before." Peter studied Raina, not flinching from the unfriendly gaze.

"You shouldn't question me. I haven't done anything wrong."

"You just up and disappear again, and you haven't done anything wrong?"

"I should have told you, but it was an emergency. It didn't kill you to not know where I was, he could have died."

"Not killed me! You little bitch, you just run off without a farewell, and I'm not supposed to worry. You're grounded."

Lili stood. "I am eighteen years old, and I don't have to take this anymore. You have tried to control every aspect of my life, but it's over. I'm not staying."

"And where will you go? You have nothing without me."

"She has me." Peter set down the spoon. "I remember why I don't like mothers. They want to do everything, plan everything. It's not practical."

"Practical? You are what... thirteen? You are nothing without family."

"I have no family."

"Who are you?"

"Peter Pan."

Raina laughed, "Oh, isn't this rich! Your little friend thinks he's Peter Pan."

"I am."

"Boy, you lie."

"I am. Lili was with me ten years ago, and I would have done anything to have kept her."

"Face the truth, Lili. You live in a story-book world, away from everyone. You've managed to brainwash this boy-child into believing he's Peter Pan. Grow up!"

Peter just gazed at her, sadness writ on his face. "Don't you remember? You had to have seen the Neverland."

"I gave up childish nonsense years ago."

"Why?" Ah, the infernal question, no matter how many answers are given, all anyone must do is ask 'Why?' again in a cute and unassuming tone of voice. Peter asked this question in just that voice, eyes large and he stared at Raina, trying to figure this woman out. Needless to say, girls in general confused him.

"My call to God required it. Besides, what sane person needs to live in their head? The entire world is out there."

"But Neverland is real. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. That I don't exist."

"Peter Pan is just a story written by a lonely British man for his friends' children. A screen play, a novel. Just writing. You are not him, you are just some poor soul my daughter picked up off the streets."

A gleam came to Peter's eyes. "You can doubt Neverland, you can disbelieve Lili, but I didn't just come off the streets. Your daughter did not pick me up. I picked her up, out of a window, a lonely, imaginative girl."

"You dare speak of.... you don't..." Raina's face twisted, and in that instant Peter saw she was quite, quite mad. He started to back off, but Raina was too fast, and too angry to notice Peter hadn't been sitting on the chair, but kneeling on it. Her slap sent him flying straight into the nearest wall headfirst.

While it wasn't the first time that he'd been whacked into a wall, he crumpled to the floor in a daze. Ah, the world of head injuries.

"You know nothing boy. My little girl was kidnapped and held for a year. She did not go gallivanting off to Fairyland." Lili punched her.

"I don't care what you think I did when I was eight. You don't slap anyone into walls, mother dearest." She helped Peter up, he looked at her, something dawning on his face.

"You hit her... you just..."

"Yes. I hit her. I'll die before I let anyone touch you again."

Peter sputtered, "But you just... hit her! I mean, that was cool, but..."

"If you say, 'but you're a girl!' I may have to slap you into a wall too."

Back in Neverland, Peter tried to get a better explanation out of Lili. This wasn't easy, Lili didn't really want to talk about it.

"But why? It's not the first time I've been hit."

"I'm pretty sure you may have deserved those other slaps. My mother had no right to hit you."

"I kidnap her daughter twice and I don't deserve to be hit?"

Lili glared. "You didn't kidnap me, I wanted to come."

"You aren't answering the question."

"Would you just leave it?!"

"No. Answer me Lili."

"You aren't king, I don't have to answer anything.' Lili turned and wrapped her arms around her legs.

"Please?" Peter leaned down, wrapping his arms around her, "Pretty please with sugar on top?"

"What do you want me to say!? That I saw her hit you and wanted to hurt her? That I don't want anyone to touch you? That I won't allow anyone to smack my...."

"Your what?"

"Mine." Lili glowered. "No one hits what is mine but me."

"Oh." Peter stared off into space.

"What?"

"Does this work both ways?" Lili made a sound of disgust.

Tenshi: Ack.... That took way too long.... And, well... uck.

But the end was fun to write. Is it bad to dislike your own characters? On another note, I have such pretty Japanese music. Ok.... Moi Dix Mois isn't pretty so much as hard rock with weird classical elements, but I love Mana dearly. Yes, I listen to funky goth rock/ visual kei music while writing. Shut up. I have a weakness for men in skirts. And they have such pretty costumes...