Chapter Twelve: The Place

Peter and Merida touched down in front of Tiana's house.

Merida started to walk towards the door, but Peter stopped her.

"There's one thing I forgot to tell you."

"Yeah?"

Peter smirked at her.

"Well, the Avengers don't really want people to know that they're here, so we can't tell them who's helping us."

Merida raised her eyebrows.

"Then why do I get to know?"

Peter smiled at her.

"Because you're special."

Merida smiled, and they walked into the sitting room. It looked as if no one had moved

"So?" Jasmine asked, crossing her arms.

"We'll have a place for him tomorrow." Peter announced proudly.

"Where?" Jim asked, looking up at Merida.

"It's a secret." Peter said.

Merida nodded.

"Yup, sorry."

Jim smiled.

"Well, as long as it's taken care of, it doesn't matter, no?" Naveen asked, smiling.

"That's right." Tiana said.

"So, where are we keeping him tonight?" Jim asked.

Merida bit her lip; They hadn't thought of that.

"We'll keep him at Merida's." Peter turned to her "You can stay with me again."

Tiana and Jasmine exchanged knowing looks, but Jim's eyes widened. Merida felt her cheeks blush.

"Yeah." She said.

Jim was still staring at her.

"I'll explain later." She mouthed to him, and he smiled.

"So, meeting dismissed, then." Tiana said, rising.

Everyone got up and started to walk out. Jim walked over to Peter and Merida, and Peter smiled at him.

"Hey, do you want to come shoot bows with me and Merida?"

Jim smiled.

"Yeah, sure, I could go for that."

Merida smiled back at him. She wanted to spend more time with the real Jim.

"All right, then. Meet us at" Peter looked around to make sure no one was listening "The Place."

Jim nodded and then walked away.

"What's-"

"Shh!" Peter pulled Merida out the door. "You can't let anyone hear about it. It's a secret place."

She laughed.

"All right, then." She said "Where is it?"

"I'll show you."

He grabbed her hand and they jumped off of the ground.

As they began to fly, Merida thought of the time that she had spent with the real Jim. Jafar never came close to capturing who he was. Suddenly, she remembered what he had said about aging.

"Is it true that not everyone ages here?"

Peter looked at her.

"Who told you that?"

She looked down. The trees that they were flying over were so many different colors.

"Jim."

Peter sighed.

"Yeah, it's true. I didn't want you to worry, so I didn't tell you."

"Peter, I'd rather know than not know."

He smiled at her.

"I'm sorry." He said, and he squeezed her hand.

"It's okay." There was a brief pause, and Merida asked the question that had been gnawing at her since Jim told her about aging. "Do you think I'm getting older?"

Peter stared at her, made his thinking face, and then wrinkled his nose. She laughed.

"No, you're not going to get older. Do you know how I know?"

Merida smiled.

"How?"

"Because it's been a year and you look exactly the same. So stop worrying."

They both laughed, and Peter looked down.

"There!" He said.

They dropped to in the middle of the forest, and Merida looked around. At first she didn't notice anything, but when she looked at the trees more closely, she could see that they had red targets painted on them.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Peter asked, leaning against one of the trees.

He handed Merida her bow.

"Yeah." Merida said.

She reached for her arrows, but Peter swatted her hand.

"We have to use special arrows." He said, and he pulled out two bundles that Merida had never seen before; One blue and one red.

"What are those for?" Merida asked.

Peter laughed.

"You didn't think that we were just going to shoot targets all day, did you?" He asked.

Merida shrugged.

"The blue ones are for us, and the red ones are for Jim. We're playing a game kind of like tag. The arrows don't hurt when they hit you, but they leave a little mark of the color you were hit with."

"Isn't it unfair for the two of us to go against Jim?"

Peter looked up at her.

"No, he's got Morph with him."

Merida was going to protest, but for all she knew, Morph was great at this game.

"Yeah, and you're going down, Peter." Jim said, coming out from behind a tree. Morph flew into Peter's face and turned into a little Jim.

"You're going down, Peter. You're going down, Peter."

Peter laughed and swatted at him. Morph turned back into himself and licked Peter's face.

"So, how exactly do we play this game?" Merida asked.

"There aren't really any rules, you just have to stay in the forest and try not to get hit." Peter said, and he handed Jim the red arrows.

Jim pulled out his bow and Merida gasped. It looked like it was made of metal, and it had all kinds of different gears on it.

"Like it?" Jim asked, loading his arrows into it "I made it a while ago."

Merida nodded, but held her bow tight. Her father had made it with his own hands, and she knew it would never fail her.

"Five minutes?" Peter asked, and Jim nodded.

Morph turned into a little red arrow.

"GO!" Peter yelled.

He grabbed Merida's hand and literally pulled her off of the ground. They flew onto a small platform in a tree a ways away.

"Forgot to mention," Peter said once they were sitting down. "we have to take his flag."

"What flag?" Merida asked, and Peter pointed up.

She looked, and above them was a blue flag attached to a pole.

"Jims on foot, so it's going to be a while until he gets to his base." Peter pulled a small bag out of his backpack. "Want some berries?"

Merida laughed.

"Sure."

As she was putting them into her mouth, there was a buzzing noise. She and Peter looked around, confused.

Suddenly, Jim came flying through the trees on his solar-surfer.

"Aww, I forgot about that!" Peter whipped out his bow and began shooting arrows. "I'll go get his flag, you keep him away from ours!"

Merida pulled out her bow and shot at Jim. He dodged every one, but it looked like he wasn't getting closer, either.

"Come on, Merida, I thought you were good at this!" Jim said as he shot an arrow. Merida rolled away from it, and she got an idea.

Merida loaded another arrow, aimed for Jim, and then shot to the left of him. The arrow got his arm, and he landed his solar-surfer on the ground.

"Guess I spoke too soon."

He yelled up, and he began to climb. He was fast, and pulled himself up onto the platform in less than a minute.

"How are you doing?" He asked her, sitting against the tree.

"Pretty good, actually. This is more fun than I thought."

They laughed.

"Well," Jim said "Peters the one who came up with the game. He's pretty good at that kind of stuff."

"Tell me about it." Merida said, rolling her eyes. She couldn't even count all of the different games she had played with him.

"So, how long have you guys been, ya know." Jim said, taking some berries from the bag and popping them in his mouth. It took her a second to realize what he was talking about.

"Me and Peter? Oh, no. No, we aren't…" Merida said, looking into the trees. She didn't know what was going on anymore.

"Oh." Jim said, smiling at her.

Just then, Peter flew through the trees, gripping a red flag.

"Victory!" He shouted, landing on the platform.

Morph flew over his shoulder, covered in blue coloring. He looked down at Jim and Merida.

"Oh. Good job, Mer. Do you guys wanna play again?"

"Yeah, but this time I get Merida." Jim said, standing up. He offered her his hand and she took it.

Peter looked at her.

"Are you sure you wanna play with him? Without me on your team, you'll lose no matter what."

Merida smiled at him.

"Wanna bet, Peter?" He smirked back at her.

"Why, yes, I believe I do. We can talk about what the loser has to do later."

Merida nodded and dropped her arrows.

"Let's go, Jim." Merida said, climbing down.

"I'll give you guys five minutes." Peter said "And then I'm coming after you."

Merida and Jim climbed onto the solar-surfer.

"See you then, Peter." Jim said, and kicked the vehicle to life.

It took all of two minutes to get to Jim's base. He parked the solar-surfer on top of the platform and sat down on top of it.

"Well, we have about three minutes until Peter comes looking for us." Jim said "Do you have a plan?"

Merida smiled.

"You just need to hold him off, and I'll get the flag."

Peter didn't know how good she was at climbing trees.

Jim smiled.

"Sounds good. Do you want to take the solar-surfer?"

Merida shook her head.

"I'll be fine."

Jim smirked.

"Well, see you on the other side of victory."

Merida laughed and climbed down the tree.

Once she was down, she ran into the forest, found a medium-height tree, climbed up it, and looked around. She couldn't see Peter, but the branches were close enough that she could jump from tree to tree.

After jumping through about ten trees, Merida heard a noise. She clung around the base of the tree she was in and tried to stay as still as possible. A few feet in front of her face, Peter flew past, whooping. She quickly made her way to Peter's base.

Merida jumped onto the platform and looked around. The flag was a few feet above her, hanging on a string. It took a few jumps for her to reach it, but when she did, she wrapped her fingers around it and pulled.

She went as fast as she could back to her base. Jim and Peter were sitting on the platform, covered in paint and laughing. Merida jumped onto it.

"We win." She said, smiling.

Jim smirked.

"Well, actually, I don't think you do." Peter said, smiling.

Merida cocked her head.

Suddenly, the flag in her hand changed into a little Peter.

"I don't think you do. I don't think you do."

In half a second, Peter had their flag in his hand, waving it in the air.

"I will never fall!" He yelled, and then fell on the floor laughing.

Morph flew up to Jim and licked his face.

"Yeah, yeah. I know you're sorry." Jim said, patting Morph.

They all sat down on the floor, breathing hard.

"I think that'll be our last round." Jim said. Peter sighed.

"Yeah, mine too. Merida?" Merida sprawled out on the ground.

"I'm done." Jim got up.

"Come on, little guy." Morph flew up to Jim. "See you later, Peter. Merida."

He got on his solar-surfer and flew away.

"Hey, Merida." Peter said, lying down next to her on his back.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"I won." He breathed, smiling at her.

"Oh. Yeah. Right." Merida said, looking up at the sky. He had never actually said what he wanted if he won. "What do you want?"

Peter was quiet for a second.

"Can I save it for another time?"

Merida laughed

"Sure, but you have to remember, because I'm not reminding you."

She stood up.

"Come on, Peter, we should get home. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

Peter sighed.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

The two flew to Peter's house and went to their separate rooms. Merida was so tired from the day's games that she fell asleep immediately.