Tenshi-san: I do believe I'm becoming burnt out. Or Loki's been out drinking, and failing in his muse efforts. And somehow, I doubt listening to Big and Rich will help as I write this. But I have a big play list. So this chapter will be finished, even if Microsoft Word rebels and I have to print out the original copy and retype to rid it of errors. And that is what I had to do. So enjoy this fiction, because the word processor didn't want to let me type it. :-P to Microsoft, I will not be silenced!
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything other than Lili. And Barbarrossa, Galen, Siun...uh... Well, I don't own Peter. Or Tink, who will return! Every other character is mine. Mine I say!
Lili discovered one thing that she hadn't expected as she began to search for Captain Barbarrossa. The Neverland wasn't exactly as she remembered, for it was fluid. Certain landmarks remained, but new things were always moving in, there were always the black patches that went largely unexplored.
Peter was absolutely no help in the matter. He may have controlled everything, and the new adventures were indeed constructs of his mind, but he couldn't just know where everyone was. Well, he could, but he had a horribly short attention span, and the only person he was interested in finding was her. It was annoying, and he could always find her, no matter what she did.
In short, new distractions popped up every ten minutes as Peter's interest waxed and waned in different things. It made finding one person on the constantly active island incredibly difficult.
Peter would have driven a cartographer insane. Difficult to map indeed.
Lili sat in a tree, muttering to herself. "This is impossible. If everyone keeps moving, and I keep moving, I'll never catch Barbarrossa. But he never comes near where I am when I keep still!"
"You know, you could ask for help." Lili shrieked and spun off the branch. Peter, once again had shown up completely silent. He caught her before she fell. He had become an old hand at that trick, seeing how many times he had to catch her. "And you should be able to sense me, like I can sense you."
"Is that why you can always find me?"
"Yes, you used to be able to do it." Peter sat cross legged on the limb. "Maybe adults can't do it."
Lili ignored the jab, and asked "Can the Lost boys sense you?"
"No." Peter smirked, "But I can sense them." he paused, and pointed out to the left, "They're over that way hunting the bears."
"Maybe I'm just out of practice..." Lili leaned back against the trunk, "Maybe I'm just tired..."
A voice in her ear whispered, "Maybe you're old..." Peter knelt next to her, head bent seductively close to hers. "Maybe you are afraid."
Lili acted without thinking. One minute, Peter was kneeling all but on top of her, the next she was on top of him as he was sprawled against the branch. She had pulled his dagger, and had it against his throat. Her eyes glittered, "I am not old!" she growled "And I'm afraid of nothing, not even you, Peter Pan."
"Wow." Peter suddenly raised his arms, sweeping her arms away and knocking the dagger away to the ground. He grinned, throwing his arms around her neck. "I really get to keep you?"
"What the hell does that have to do with anything?"
"But I get to keep you?"
"Do you know you make no sense whatsoever? She said, studying him.
"Yep." he grinned happily.
A strangled scream interrupted the partially syrupy moment. The scream soon gave way to swearing. "...Bloody horny immortal pre-teens! And bloody confused girls encouraging said bloody horny immortal pre-teens! Do you have any idea how close I just came to becoming Galen the One-Eyed Pirate?"
"I didn't know you were down there..." said Lili apologetically.
"He bloody well did! And he still knocked the God forsaken dagger towards me!" Galen glared at the still smirking Peter. "But he was too damned turned on by your little temper tantrum to be bothered by old friends wandering about under the jungle canopy."
"Old friends?" Lili's brows lifted.
"Yes. I happen to be an ex-Lost Boy. Very ex..." Galen pried the dagger from his hat, which, incidentally, had been sitting rakishly pulled over his eyes before. It was all that had saved him from losing an eye. Quite the hat, eh? "Do you know how long I've had this hat? Now it has a cut in it..."
Peter said "About a moon. You stole it from Barbarrossa. And that's more of a hole than a cut."
Galen ignored Peter's smart ass remark.
Lili said "And here I was, thinking he culled the ranks every time the Lost Boys looked like they were even thinking of growing up."
"I was a special case, being an original Lost Boy. I staved off puberty with a bat longer than you are old, little girl."
"Really? And yet you look all of thirty five."
"It is the Neverland. And I am thirty-ish." Galen said.
"Yes, but you've been thirty-ish forever."
"Believe it or not, forever is not as long as you can remember, Pan. I have been here longer than any pirate. I survived what's-his-name, the captain before Hook, Hook, and I'll probably survive Barbarrossa, unless he decides my skin would make a dandy coat."
Peter wrapped his arms around his legs and balanced precariously on the branch. "Barbarrossa wouldn't be so stupid as to kill his mocking bird. He's a vain evil little man, but he won't kill his sole source of information."
"And that's where you're wrong, Pan. Barbarrossa has slipped the edge of reason. He's nuttier than a coconut tree."
"So he's going to..."
"Kill anyone who gets in between you and him. He's got it in for your pretty little girly, she is a thorn in his side."
"I haven't done anything!"
Galen laughed, but the sound had little to do with mirth. "Oh, but you have. You've got the one thing he couldn't get. Peter Pan wrapped firmly about your finger. You've managed to tame the most sociopathic child I've had the pleasure to meet."
"I am not tamed." Peter glared at Galen. "And I won't let anything to hurt Lili."
"And how are you going to do that?" asked Lili, half amused. "Kill Barbarrossa?"
"No, you are going home."
"What! I can't just leave! This is home!
"You will go." the look in Peter's eyes was hard and far older than any look he had the right to be bandying about. Someone who would never see the far side of fourteen had no right to look so adult.
"I won't." She spat the words out between clenched teeth. "I will not be banished!"
He jerked her close, and whispered "I could not live if anything happened to you. I know what Barbarrossa would do before he killed you. I won't let him touch you."
And so it was. No one could change Peter's mind once an idea had set in. Call it pride, love, whatever, but for better or worse, Lili was leaving. Against her will, but she would have been just as absent had she agreed to his plan.
Peter called for Tink, and Galen pulled her to the side, away from Peter.
"He loves you as much as he is able, for him to willingly send you back. He doesn't like giving up what he has claimed."
"I know. Watch him, help him. He's just a boy... And he'll do something stupid as soon as I leave. I know he will."
Tink finally appeared all a tizzy. She was unhappy about being woken from a nap and even less pleased when she heard what Peter wanted. Jealous fairy or no, she knew Lili was a good influence. It had stopped raining, and the Neverland had returned to a semblance of normalcy.
The flight back was as pleasant as can be expected. Lili had stopped trying to convince him that it was safe for her to stay, and Tink had stopped tinkling obscenities. All too soon were they at Lili's window.
"I'll come back when it is safe." Peter turned away, but Lili caught his wrist.
"Don't be afraid to run away. I'll help you, no matter what." He threw himself into her arms, crying.
"I don't want to go back alone. But I'd die before I let him hurt you."
"I know..." She stroked his hair. "I know, I don't agree, but I understand." He pulled back.
"I should go... Galen's waiting." he pulled away slowly, turned, waved half heartedly, and was gone.
The night sky full of its stars seemed a bit emptier than it had before, some spill of magic gone from it. The stars didn't twinkle, for even they had nothing to say on this event. They may not have been friendly to Peter (he had a bad habit of sneaking behind them and trying to blow them out, even after Lili pointed out that it was next to impossible, the heat was to intense.) but they rather liked Lili, and her unhappiness at the state of affairs kept even the youngest silent.
Tenshi-san: And in case you can't remember, (or are lazy and never read the novel) twinkling was the stars language, and the oldest seldom say anything, hence the solid light. I'm pretty pleased with this. It's short, but Galen is featured. :-D Where his personality came from, I haven't the faintest. Now for the next bit...
Oh, 'Forever Young' is a one shot (for now, until I can work it into this thing) based on 'Innocent and Heartless' and a passage from the novel. Go read it. And review both this and that! Please?