Warnings: Mild violence

Spoilers: None, really

Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.

Notes: Set when the characters are children. Peter is 7, Nick is 5.

Peter knew there's a stream somewhere in the fields behind the school and he wanted to find it. Nick helped him slip away. Nick was better at that than he was and Olivia turned off the alarm on gate in the fence. It was working out okay but the field was big. Way bigger than it looked from the window of his room. Some of the older kids rode horses back here but no one was here now. Everyone was in class.

Supposed to be in class.

The teachers were probably looking for them already but without the alarms to help it'd take them a while to figure out they weren't in the building.

Peter looked over his shoulder. "Come on."

Olivia glared at him and pulled on Nick's hand.

Nick made a pathetic face at him. "You said this would be fun."

"It is fun. We're not in class, right. It's not much farther."

Nick planted his feet and drug Olivia to a stop. He pouted. "You're a liar, Peter."

"I'm not lying. It's just where those trees are."

Olivia had closed the distance between her and Nick and stood pressed against his side. "It doesn't look that far." She smiled at Nick and Peter felt the flicker of the way they talked to each other over the thing that connected them. He hated that; he couldn't hear them.

"Come on, Olivia. If Nick's such a baby that he can't keep up he can stay here."

Her eyes were flat and cold. She reminded him of the snake they had in science class. "Don't call him a baby."

"He's too little to keep up with us. He is a baby."

"Olive, don't." Nick's eyes were big and frightened.

What he felt then wasn't a flicker. It wasn't like anything he'd felt before. It was hot and angry and it hit his mind an instant before Olivia tackled him. He got his arms up like he'd been taught but she was really fast and her fist connected with his jaw before he could really do anything.

"Stop it!"

He was bigger than she was and pushed her off him. He got in a pretty good kick to her shin in the process. He tried grabbing her hands but that didn't really work so well; she bit one of his wrists hard enough to draw blood. He kicked at her again and finally got over her well enough to pin her a little.

"Stop fighting!"

His head swam and all he could see were Olivia's eyes, wide with shock as he slumped towards her. Her hands dropped to the ground beside her head, limp, still. He could feel her heart pounding and this close he could feel confusion and panic. He thought he should probably get up and figure out if his nose was bleeding but he just couldn't move, it was too much effort.

Nick sniffled over them. "I don't like it when you fight."

Peter rolled off of Olivia and stared up at him. Olivia's voice was raspy. "What did you do?"

"I made you stop." Nick smiled and it scared Peter a little. "I want to go play Legos. The stream is stupid and it isn't even there anyway. Come on."

Olivia stood up first, shaky, and she pulled him to his feet. Peter squeezed her hand and tried to make her feel his apology through their skin. She smiled, just a little.

Nick took her other hand and led them back home.