A/N: Look what I got! Yes a new chapter, who'd have thunk it. Firstly, many thanks to the lovely reviewers, without your encouraging words I probably wouldn't have continued this story. Secondly, you might want to read chapter one again, because I've made some minor changes in it. Nothing devastating though, so if you don't feel like reading it again you'll be fine. And thirdly, Ariel is in this chapter!
Marina had only just slipped into her pyjamas when she heard a knock on the front door. She smiled to herself. Who could it be but her dear friend Olivia. No one ever came to visit her this late but her. She opened the door and there she stood. Still in her work clothing; so she hadn't stopped by her own place yet. She did that occasionally. Marina didn't mind. They practically lived together anyway. Yes they both had their own apartment, but they shared their space like there were neither walls nor doors separating them.
"Hey," she greeted her with an understanding smile. Whenever she went straight to Marina's you could place your bets on it, it had been a bad day.
"Bad day huh?"
"Bad night," Olivia groaned as she stepped inside the apartment to give her friend a hug.
Marina nodded her head, closed the door and turned around. Olivia had already kicked off her shoes into a corner and made her way over to the open kitchen area. From the refrigerator she grabbed a half empty bottle of wine.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Hm no, not really. Just... Peter's friends." She rolled her eyes and said no more.
Marina had her fair share of run ins with that lot. Not to mention Peter Pan himself. He was a nasty piece of work. How on earth Liv could continue working in such close proximity of him was beyond her.
"Oh what did they want now?"
After grabbing two glasses out of the cupboard she joined her friend on the sofa and poured the wine.
"Hm, I'm not sure I really want to think about what they wanted, but they... well they cornered me right outside the building. If it hadn't been for Leroy..."
The rest of that sentence was left hung in the air. Yes, if it hadn't been for Leroy... Would they really have hurt her? Or were they only trying to scare her? The fact that she couldn't be sure of the answer said a lot about those boys. Unpredictable and intimidating. Ironically enough two words that could be used to not only describe Peter's friends, but Peter himself aswell.
Olivia had been too busy staring at the bottom of her glass to notice Marina's normally sweet disposition turn into a stormy cloud of emotions. Her brows were furrowed in a vicious downward arch and her eyes held a cold stare.
"Those little jerks!"
Her sudden outburst seemed to bring Liv back to earth, because she looked up, disturbed. She smiled at her friend who was now firing off a whole range of colorful words and promises to make them feel sorry they were alive.
When she finally noticed Liv staring she laughed and said, "Oh Liv, why don't you just quit that job? You know, just to please me," she added with a big grin.
"And live where exactly?"
"With me of course silly."
"I couldn't do that," Liv replied softly. As much as she loved the sound of having a peaceful life away from Peter, she couldn't possibly disrupt her friend's life like that too.
"Come on we practically share living spaces as it is," Marina protested as if she was reading Liv's mind.
Liv smiled and raised her eyebrows. "You know roomies aren't allowed in this building."
"So? Who's gonna find out?"
Peter. Peter would find out. He always found out everything. There was never anything you could hide from that boy. And seeing as his family owned more than half this town, she didn't think it a good idea to bring about even more trouble. If you could avoid confrontations with Peter, it was best you did exactly that.
"Well, even if I were to stay with you, it's not just about that. I have other responsibilities; bills to pay, food to buy. I can't let you pay for two lives now can I?" Liv argued her case, hoping it'd be enough to deter her.
Marina looked dejected. Liv and her rationality. She knew her friend was right. Her job at the diner wasn't exactly a gold mine, especially since most of her salary had to be saved up if she was ever going to get out of this town and pursue her dream as a musician.
As the hours ticked by faster and faster, Peter was sitting comfortably in his grand leather chair. Time. That was one of the more bothersome disadvantages of this world. Time could just sit there and stare you in the face while it threatened to move on and pass. Every morning, for the first few weeks in Storybrooke, Peter had woken up at the sound of the clock, rushing to the mirror praying he hadn't aged. Until one day he got so sick and tired of being confronted with his fear that he threw out all the clocks in the house. No clocks, no time, no aging. At least in Peter's mind. After a while he figured time worked differently here in the land without magic. It wasn't anything like Neverland. Mornings came and evenings fell, but he, and everyone else in this town, stayed the same.
He looked around the room and an old familiar feeling rose to the surface. It was the same feeling he'd experienced back in Neverland. For a while it had been wonderful. Being free to do whatever he wanted. No work to be done, obligations to fulfill, or adults to boss you around, yet slowly but surely life on the island became quite lonely. There wasn't anyone he could talk to or play games with; there was only him. Right around that time was when Peter had started to collect boys from other realms so they could stay on the island with him. Felix had been the first boy he'd found and taken to Neverland. He proved a great companion and Peter sought out others like him. Of course, there were no other boys like Felix, save for himself perhaps. They were very much alike and his absence cast a dark cloud over Peter's perfect new world.
He closed his eyes and cleared his mind. Remembering his most loyal friend made him feel, sad. And Peter refused to give into that. What's done is done, he couldn't turn back time, nor could he bring Felix back. Though it wasn't for his lack of trying. He'd kept a small amount of magic for himself, in case he would need it, but that hadn't been enough to bring someone back from the dead.
Dwelling on the past, however, would do him no good, instead he focused on Tinkerbell. He found himself doing that a lot lately. In fact, he was thinking of her more often than he'd like. She was only such a small part of his plans, but the manner in which she crept her way into his thoughts all the time would suggest otherwise.
Just as he was getting engaged in his plans to further antagonize the ex-fairy, along with all the other residents of his town, he heard a knock on the front door. It was already dark outside. Who on earth would disturb him at this time of night? He let out an annoyed groan at having to anser the door himself, as he got up from his spot in the chair. He looked through the looking glass and saw it was one of his former lost boys. In this land his name was Austin. Not one of the strongest or swiftest in combat, but most certainly one of the more loyal. He was a little older than the average lost boy, like Felix and himself.
While Austin wasn't nearly as sadistic as Peter or as twisted as Felix, he had a mean streak that was matched by very few. One thing they did have in common was their love of intimidation as a way of controlling people.
He was also the only one who had actively sought out Wendy when she was on the island. He frequently volunteered to bring her her food for example. Peter had always known that caring for the girl's well being had been the last thing on the boy's mind, but so long as he wouldn't cross the line, the line being love, he allowed him his fun.
He had been a good mate in the past and Peter was glad to have him at his side here in Storybrooke. Right now though he prefered no company; he liked having the evenings to himself. Nevertheless he opened the door and raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
Austin smoothly breezed past Peter. "Yes. Please. Come in." Peter said, slightly annoyed that he just barged in instead of waiting for his permission. The boy sauntered over to the living area and seated himself down as if he was in his own home.
"Want a drink?" Peter offered, pouring one for himself in the process. Austin shook his head no.
"Say that uhm...," he immediately began, getting to the point of his visit, "that servant of yours Olivia... I ran into her just now, or rather, she ran into me." Peter turned around in time to catch the complacent smirk on his friend's face. He observed him with curiosity. Where was he going with this?
"And? What of it?"
He knew Austin and Liv, or well... Tink, in those days, had never gotten on. She knew of his visits to Wendy and she repeatedly tried to do something about it. That was, until Peter reminded her exactly whose island she was on. He made the rules, not her.
In Storybrooke, they'd had a few encounters, but the curse seemed to have done nothing to bring the two closer together. They hated each other now more than ever, which amused Peter a great deal.
"You... are keeping her in line aren't you?" Even though his tone was casual, his words startled Peter all the same. Why would he ask him such a thing, of course, she was in line, this was his world. No one stepped a foot outside of line without him knowing about it. And so, rather agitated yet trying to control his anger, he walked up to Austin and asked, "Are you questioning me?"
The glass Peter was holding nearly shattered under the pressure his hand was putting on it. Austin took notice of his friend's threatening stance and held up his hands defensively. "Just saying, she seemed awfully comfortable resisting my very friendly offer."
Peter arched one of his eyebrows sceptically, he knew exactly what Austin's idea of a 'friendly offer' comprised. So, she was standing up for herself was she? That was no good. No good at all. That was the old Tink, always fighting back and breaking rules, getting in his way. He'd have to take care of that. Immediately.
"Well then... we'll just have to make sure that comfort, is taken away from her, now won't we?"
The two boys shared one devious look and both silently agreed.
Additional A/N: Ok so it took me a while to figure it out, but I have a general idea where I wanna take this now. Possibly I should mention that it's gonna be a bit uhm... dark-ish. Please note that I didn't mark this story with the tag 'romance'. Just a fair warning. ;) Also, I changed the lost boy character I introduced in the first chapter. When I wrote it, I had no intention of using him again. I just needed a lost boy in that scene, but since he will be in future chapters now, I decided I needed to make him a proper character.