Hello my beautiful readers! Today is my birthday, and I'm in a happy mood, so I wanted to take the time to thank every single one of you for reading the story. I believe I told some of you that it was only going to be nine chapters long, but I'm here today to tell you that it's looking like I'll need more than that. Also, I've been told by the site managers that I cannot have illustrations in my stories, but when the illustrations get finished, I'll let you guys know how you can see them. Enjoy chapter seven!

Chapter Seven: Outside

Merida looked around herself and sighed. A week ago, Peter had saved her from Hook and Jim, and had taken her to stay with him so that she would be safe. She was thankful for everything that he had done. However, Peter said that to be safe she had to stay indoors, and at this point, she was going stir-crazy.

"I have to get out." She thought to herself, looking out one of the many windows in the room.

Since she arrived, Peter had been a good enough host. He fed her, kept everything clean, let Tiana visit a few times, and did whatever she asked. Except for letting her outside, of course.

Peter walked through the front door carrying bags of food. He set them down on the counter and smiled at her. Merida sighed.

"Peter, if I don't get out, I'm going to go crazy." Peter's smile didn't falter.

"Come on, Mer, we have plenty of fun here! Besides, you can go outside."

"Going on the roof was not what I meant." Peter sighed.

"Merida, it's not safe. You could get hurt."

"I can take my bow with me; You know that I'm a great shot." She said, straightening up.

"But what if there are too many of them?" Merida bit her lip. She knew that Peter was right, and he was just trying to keep her safe, but she couldn't help it. "Cheer up, I brought you back something."

Merida perked up; This was new. Peter had gone shopping a few times, but he had never brought back anything specifically for her.

"Close your eyes."

"Peter-"

"Nope! You have to close your eyes or else you can't have it." Merida tried to suppress her smile, but failed, and closed her eyes. "Now stick your hands out." Merida obeyed and felt warm hands on hers. When they went away, she felt something cold. "All right, you can open your eyes now."

Merida opened her eyes and in her hands was a necklace. The chain was a dark brass color and attached to it was a little bow and arrow charm. Peter smiled even wider.

"Do you like it? I found it and I thought that you would like it." Merida smiled at him.

"Yes, Peter, I like it. Thank you." Peter watched her as she put the necklace on.

"You know, I was thinking…" Merida looked up at him

"Yeah?" Peter smiled at her.

"There is this one place where we could go, but only if you really want to go outside." Merida jumped up.

"Can we go right now?" Peter laughed at her.

"Yeah, we can go, just let me get some stuff first." Peter walked up the staircase and Merida smiled. Finally, she was going to go outside.

While she was waiting, Merida began to put away the food the Peter had gotten. Milk, eggs, chocolate chip cookies, cake batter… She laughed. He really did have a sweet tooth.

A few minutes after she had finished, Peter came down with a brown back pack slung over his shoulder. She gave him a look.

"Just in case." Peter said to her, and they walked onto the porch.

It only took a few minutes of flying, but they touched down at the beginning of a trail. Merida looked at Peter. What were they doing here? Peter smiled at her.

"There's a lot of trees here, so we should be safe." Merida was curious; She'd never been this way.

"What are we doing?"

"Just following the trail," Peter said causally. "and if we go the right way, there's something really cool at the end." Merida sighed, and then smiled. A little bit of exercise would be good for her.

As they walked down the trail, Peter pointed out flowers and plants to Merida. Arroyo Lupine, Baby Blue Eyes, Foxglove, Evergreen Huckleberry bushes, Bog Laurel Bloom… He seemed to know a lot about the forest, but he did spend a lot of his time in it.

After explaining what a Salmonberry tasted like, Peter laughed.

"What?" Merida asked.

"It's just," Peter laughed again "remember when I asked you if you liked flowers?" Merida smiled, that was when they were just becoming friends.

"Yeah?" Peter helped her over a log.

"It's just that… That I was asking you because I was going to bring you out here."

Merida's heart skipped a beat. What was that all about? She ignored the flutter and looked at the plants surrounding her. Thanks to Peter, she knew most of their names now.

"It is beautiful out here." She said, smiling. Peter smiled back at her.

"Wait until you see what's at the end."

After about a half an hour of walking, the trail forked.

"Which way?" Merida asked, looking at Peter expectantly. Peter scratched his head, looked down both paths, and smiled.

"Neither." He said. Merida looked at him.

"Neither?" Peter laughed at her.

"This way" he said, and walked off trail.

Merida expected to be climbing over rocks and fallen trees, but looking at the ground, she saw that there was a faint trail. If Peter didn't know where to look, they probably wouldn't have found it.

After just a few minutes of walking, the forest gave way to a meadow. Merida gasped, and Peter smiled. The grass was the greenest she had ever seen, and there were wild flowers speckled throughout it. At the other side was a small waterfall pouring into a miniature lake.

"This is amazing." Merida said, taking it all in. Peter pulled out a small bag that he had been putting wild berries into and took a few more. When he was done, he turned to Merida.

"Yes, this is amazing, but it's not where we are going." Merida looked at him, curious. What could possibly be better than this?

"Come with me." Peter said, and he grabbed her hand. They walked up to the waterfall and stopped.

"Are you okay with getting wet?" Merida was confused.

"Are we going swimming?" Peter laughed at her.

"We'll do that later, but that's not what I meant. Just trust me."

Peter walked into the lake, still towing Merida with one hand, and proceeded to walk into the waterfall.

When they emerged on the other side, they were both soaking wet and laughing. Merida looked around herself: She was in some kind of cavern, with crystals hanging from the ceiling, there was a small circle of the cave lit up from some kind of natural light source.

"Wow." Was all she could say.

For the next couple of hours, the two sat in the cave, ate their berries, and looked around at the different kinds of crystals. There were all different colors, and all of them lit up where the sunlight hit them. Peter took pieces of each one to take back home, giving Merida a blue one.

After they had spent a good amount of time looking around the cave, Peter asked Merida if she wanted to go swimming.

"I don't even have anything to swim in." Merida said, looking at the ground. Peter laughed.

"I've got you covered." He reached into his backpack and pulled out a swimsuit for her. She opened her mouth to ask where he got it, but he explained.

"Tiana brought it over the last time she came," He told her "just in case you needed it."

"Well that was nice of her." Peter stood there for a minute and Merida smiled at him. It took him a full minute to get the hint.

"Oh!" He said, blushing. "I'll- I'll uh… I'll be outside…" And with that, he went into the meadow.

Merida laughed to herself. "Oh, Peter." She thought as she got dressed. He was so sweet, and she was lucky to have him. She could hear what Tiana would say to that, the accusations she would make, but it was true. Peter had saved her life, and not only that but he had made sure that she stayed alive and as comfortable as possible.

After she had changed, she looked down at what she was wearing. It was a simple one-piece, navy blue with white polka dots.

Behind her, she thought that she heard a noise. She turned around, but it was too dark to really see anything. She quickly walked out to the meadow.

When she was out she could see that Peter was already splashing around. He looked at her and floated on his back with his arms behind his head.

"Sorry I didn't wait; The water just looked too good." Merida laughed

"Well, it's okay, I-" but she looked at Peter, and realized that this was the first time she'd seen him with his shirt off. Even more surprising was what was underneath his shirt. She quickly looked away and jumped into the water.

"Calm down," She told herself. "anyone would look like that, with all of that running around outside…" When she came up to the surface, Peter wasn't there.

"Peter?" She called out, a bit alarmed. Suddenly, something grabbed her foot. She screamed and Peter shot up to the surface. She splashed him, and he splashed her back.

"This means WAR!" Peter yelled out, jumping under the surface.

Merida went under, too, and found that she could see perfectly through the clear water. She saw Peter and she grabbed his foot, trying to tickle it. He started laughing, but even he couldn't breathe under water, so he shot up to the surface with Merida still clinging to him.

He grabbed her arm and tickled her stomach. She slammed into him, pushing both of them under water, tangled up together and wrestling. When they came back up, Peter had Merida's arms pinned behind her back and was holding her to his chest. He smiled down at her.

"I win." He said, but didn't let her go. Merida blushed. This is where he was supposed to let go.

Shouldn't this feel wrong? She asked herself, but she couldn't seem to find anything wrong with how close they were. She looked up at him. His wet hair was clinging to his face, and was almost covering his eyes. His long eyelashes were dripping wet, and he was smiling. He started to lean down toward her.

She hadn't kissed anyone before, but she was pretty sure that that was what was going to happen. Was she okay with that? She couldn't remember. She closed her eyes and began to stretch up.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the forest. Peter whipped his head towards it, letting go of her. He said something under his breath, but she couldn't tell what it was.

"Peter?" She whispered. He motioned for her to be silent and pointed to the cave. She nodded and they quickly went inside. Peter riffled through his bag.

"I'm sorry, Mer, I thought we were safe here." He said.

"Wait, Peter," Merida said, grabbing his arm "how do we know that it's them?" Peter bit his lip.

"Well, we don't, but if it is them, we need to be ready. Flying out would make us an easy target, and running would make too much noise." Noise. Merida remembered that she had heard a noise in the back of the cave when she was dressing. She grabbed Peter and pulled his ear to her lips.

"Peter, I don't think we're alone." He looked up at her. She nodded towards where she had heard the noise. He grabbed something black out of his bag and handed her her bow. She readied it.

Suddenly, there was light against the other side of the cave. Merida stared at the thing in Peter's hand, baffled.

"Flashlight." He said, but he wasn't looking at her. Merida followed his gaze to someone standing on the other side of the cave, pressed against the rock wall.

"Facilier." Peter said through his teeth.

"Peter." The man said, hugging the rock. Merida had no idea who this was, but judging from the condition of his clothing, she had good reason not to.

It was quiet for a second, and then Peter jumped on Facilier, pinning him to the floor. Merida decided to follow Peter's lead, drawing her bow and aiming at Facilier.

"What are you doing here?" Peter asked him. Facilier sighed, trying to look bored, but it was obvious that he was scared. Why did Peter know so many criminals?

"Just doing business." He replied evenly. Peter looked at Merida and then back at Facilier.

"For who?" Facilier didn't say anything, so Peter pressed him into the ground. "For. Who." He said again.

"You know who, no one else wants her." Facilier said.

"Who?" Merida asked, still pointing the bow. She wanted him to say it out loud.

"Jim." Facilier said, and his hand twitched. Merida narrowed his eyes, but he turned his head to her. "And don't worry, Sweetheart, I couldn't see you changing." Peter pushed him flat on the ground, pressing his face inches away from Facilier's.

"If you didn't see her, then how did you know what she was doing?" They stared at each other for a second, and Merida shivered.

"Because of the pile of clothes she left behind her." Facilier said through his teeth. Peter stared at him, and then pulled back slightly.

"How many are out there?" Peter asked.

"Just me." Facilier said. He had kept his voice calm the entire time, but Merida got the distinct feeling that this was worse than him screaming.

Peter looked at him for a long second, and then looked at Merida.

"Could you hand me my bag, please?" He asked, sticking out his hand. Merida handed it to him, and then Peter turned his attention back to Facilier.

"You tell Jim that he can't have Merida. Not now, not ever." Peter said, pulling out rope. He began to tie up Facilier.

"Not to tight on the hands, it leaves a nasty mark." Facilier said, smiling. Peter tightened the rope and then stood up.

"Let's go." He said, grabbing Merida's arm and walking her out.

"Do you think it's safe to fly?" Merida asked. Peter grabbed her.

"Yeah, it should be. Facilier is evil, but he's the kind of evil that gets restless when he lies." Peter jumped into the air, holding Merida securely.

She thought about Facilier's face when he said Jim's name; It had looked off.

"I think he was lying about Jim." Merida said. Peter didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"Why do you think that?" He didn't sound mad, he only confused as to how she had formed that opinion.

"Because when Facilier said his name, something was wrong." Peter held her closer.

"No, Mer, he's just afraid of him. That's all." Merida sighed.

"Yeah, that makes sense."

When they reached Peter's house, it was twilight.

"Thank you for taking me out today." Merida said, and she was thankful. She really did have fun, except for the unwelcome interruption. Peter smiled at her.

"I'm glad you managed to have some fun. I don't think you'll be going back out anytime soon, though." They walked inside, and Merida wondered how long they could hide until they were found.