A/N: sorry it's been so long since the last update! Just to warn you, I might be taking another brief (few weeks) fanfiction hiatus to focus on schoolwork. So hope you enjoy this update! I'll have lots more time in the summer!

Baelfire. What kind of a name was that? Henry wondered.

"Do you know where I can find a magic portal around here?"

Henry stood up and accidentally dropped his pencil to the floor. "What did you just say?"

"I asked if there are any magic portals around here," said Baelfire. "That lead anywhere besides the Enchanted Forest. Wonderland, maybe? Or Neverland? That's where I just came from."

"You came here through a magic portal?" asked Henry in disbelief.

"Yes," said Baelfire. "Do you not believe me?"

"I do believe you," Henry insisted. "But if you say that to anyone else here, they're going to think you're crazy. Literally. I came here through a magic portal when I was four and everyone laughed at me when I tried to explain it to them. If you tell them the same thing now, it'll be a one-way ticket to the nuthouse."

Baelfire suddenly looked a little dizzy. "What's a nuthouse?"

"A place where crazy people are locked up," Henry explained.

"Why would they think I'm crazy?"

"Because this realm has no magic in it. No one here has seen it, so they think it doesn't exist."

"So there are no magic portals?" Baelfire questioned.

"I'm afraid not," said Henry.

The younger boy hunched over and turned away as if he'd just been hit with something. Henry suddenly felt bad. Maybe this was too information all at once.

"So, do you have a nickname?" asked Henry.

"My Papa used to call me Bae," said Baelfire softly. "But I don't like him anymore."

Henry winced sympathetically.

"You should probably think about calling yourself something different here. No one in this realm would take a name like Baelfire seriously, no offense."

Baelfire frowned. "Are there any names here that are close to mine that I could call myself?"

"Um…nothing that ends with 'fire'," said Henry. "How about Neal?"

"Neal," said the younger boy, testing the new name out on his lips. "Neal. It's okay. I'll take it."

"Good," said Henry. "Just so you know, at some point the social workers and cops are going to expect you to tell them about your family. Because I was so young when I came here, I can usually get away with pretending that I don't really remember anything. You won't be able to do that."

"I could just tell them that my mother died when I was a kid and my father abandoned me at the side of the road."

"That works," said Henry. He hesitated. "You came up with that pretty fast. Is that what actually happened?"

"More or less," Neal admitted. Then he just sat back on the bed and folded his arms over his chest, making it clear that he didn't want to talk anymore right now.

A little while later, Henry finished his homework and put the books away in his bag. "So…um…I'm going out to the living area to play some games. Wanna come?"

"I guess." Neal got up from the bed and followed Henry to the large common area and ducked behind a houseplant as soon as they walked in the room. Henry turned and glanced questioningly at the younger boy.

"I thought you said there was no magic in this world," snapped Neal. "What's with the enchanted boxes?"

Henry grinned. "Those aren't made from the kind of magic you know. They're called TVs. Come on."

Neal cautiously followed Henry to a ragged couch in front of a small TV that wasn't being used. Henry turned on the TV and then plugged another box into it and grabbed two strange looking devices with buttons on them.

"That yellow circle you see on the screen is named PacMan," explained Henry. "The goal is to have him eat the cherries and the dots and stay away from the ghosts."

It took Neal a full twenty minutes of insisting that he just watch Henry play to get his head around the idea that the buttons on the little handheld thing were controlling what the circle on the screen was doing. Then he asked to play, and Henry set the game back to level one. Neal practiced a few levels on his own before they switched to multiplayer mode.

"Now, don't get too discouraged if you don't win any rounds this time," said Henry. "I've been playing this game for years."

Five minutes later, Neal won the first level. Henry smirked. "Beginner's luck."

Then Neal proceeded to beat Henry on level two, level three, and level four. He could tell from the frustrated look on the older boy's face that he wasn't letting him win on purpose. After Neal won the fifth level, Henry sighed and tossed the game controller onto the couch.

"You…you little…"

Neal shrugged and flashed Henry a deliberate smug smile. "Sure. Beginner's luck."

The following Monday, Neal was sent to school for the first time. Henry insisted on showing him around quickly before the first bell rang.

"What's an academic record?" asked Neal. "Whatever it is, the adults keep telling me they wish I had one."

"It's not that important," said Henry. "Well, it will be now that you're starting high school. But the fact that you don't have anything for the years up until now just means you won't be able to skip any entry-level classes." Neal shot him a blank look. "Basically, you'll start off taking English one, regular biology, regular American history, and Algebra one. Unless they decide to start you off in intensive math just in case you haven't learned the basics. And you'll probably also have to take health class or art class or something, plus study hall."

"I really don't see the point of all this," said Neal. "Going to a crowded building every day just to have random facts thrown at us by adults sounds kind of creepy. In Neverland, we usually had a way to hide from them."

"Hide from them?" asked Neal.

"The pirates were always trying to kill us."

"It's not quite that bad here," Henry admitted. "They don't try to kill you, but none of the ones I've met have been particularly nice either. The ones at school are usually the nicest, even though they treat us like we're stupid."

"What kinds of things do they expect us to do?" asked Neal.

"Learn what they're trying to teach you," said Henry. "If everyone else starts writing down whatever the teacher is saying, you need to do it, too. And then later you have to memorize the notes, because every few weeks they give you a test to make sure you learned everything."

Neal scowled. "Why do you take this stuff so seriously?"

"Because at the end of all this, you get a diploma that says you can get a much better job than you would have been able to otherwise. "

"So? Just become a thief and then you won't need a good job."

Henry laughed. "Yeah, right." Then he grew serious for a second. "Actually, I'm mostly doing this because I promised my little sister that as soon as she's old enough to sign herself out of foster care she can come live with me. I can't take care of her if I can't afford a decent apartment."

Neal nodded, momentarily feeling an odd level of respect for the older boy. Even though he still thought becoming a thief made more sense.

"Plus," said Henry smugly. "There's the ladies to consider." The bell rang, and Henry walked down the hall away from Neal and immediately slung his arm around a slim red-headed girl in a tight-fitting outfit, leaving the freshman to suffer through homeroom on his own.

At lunchtime, Neal was quiet. Two adults who noticed he was sitting at an empty table stopped to ask if anything was wrong, but the truth was he just wanted to be left alone. The fast-paced nature of this realm still overwhelmed him, and plus, he didn't know anyone at this school well enough to sit with them. Heck, he didn't really know anyone at this school at all except for Henry, and he seemed like he didn't want to be bothered at the moment. He was sitting at a table surrounded by a cluster of ditzy-looking females who kept touching his arms and shoulders and never took their eyes off of him. Neal couldn't seem to quit starring at the scene himself. Later, Henry told him he'd noticed that and jokingly asked if Neal was living vicariously.

"Nah, it's just strange being in a building with so many girls, you know?" Neal remarked. Henry gave him a strange look. "Neverland didn't seem to have any of those, either. Not any human ones anyway."

"Ah."

"So, if I see a girl I think might want to spend time with, how do I tell her?" asked Neal.

"Easy," said Henry. "The first thing you should do is go up to her, introduce yourself, and give her a compliment. Preferably about either her eyes or her smile. Then ask her for her phone number and call her after a couple of days and compliment her on how good she's looked lately. Girls love that. After a couple of weeks of flattery, you should be clear to ask her to meet you in the janitor's closet or an empty locker room during study hall. Don't ever ask her to go out on a 'date' with you unless you're prepared to be tied down. Trust me. I learned that the hard way."

Neal nodded seriously. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, Neal became better adjusted to life on Earth. Other than no known magic portals and having to lie about who he was, he wasn't finding the experience of being in a land without magic all that bad. That had been where he wanted to go in the first place, hadn't it? And after all this time…surely there was no chance of his father finding him here.

"I don't know," said Neal. "I think the one thing I'm never going to get used to here is how fast the mechanical carriages are."

Henry grinned. "Just wait until you try driving one. Until you have, you do not know the true meaning of pleasure."

Neal laughed as he tried to picture himself behind the wheel, steering the big metal thing with wheels down the road at breakneck speed.

"I'm going to the kitchen to see if they have any pizza left over," said Neal. "You want to come?"

"Nah," said Henry. "I've got some stuff to do. Want me to show you a new video game later?"

"Sure," said Neal.

Neal made it to the end of the hall before he suddenly realized he'd forgotten where the kitchen was located. The boys always ate in the dining room, so he'd only seen it one time in passing. Taking a random guess, Neal shoved open a door. There was only one person in the room, a girl about his age sitting on a velvet couch. She stood up quickly, then looked curiously at Neal with sparkly brown eyes when she realized he obviously wasn't who she was expecting.

"I'm sorry," said Neal. "I was just looking for the kitchen."

The girl smiled apologetically and came over to him. "I don't know where it is. I'm just here waiting to visit with my brother."

"That's okay," said Neal. He smiled confidently. "I'm Neal. What's your name?"

"Helena."

"Helena," Neal repeated softly. "You have a beautiful smile."

At the end of his visit with Helena, Henry stepped out of the visiting room and started walking over to the living room. On the way he passed the office and stopped to ask one of the adults for permission to stay late after school the following day. But the person crouched at the desk wasn't one of the adults. All of the drawers were open, and Neal was rummaging through one of them. Henry saw him pull a small roll of ten dollar bills out of a drawer and stuff it in his pocket with a triumphant grin on his face. Henry frowned and walked away.

A week later, at school, Henry was walking down the hallway with a brunette girl practically hanging off his shoulder and discreetly snaking her hand up his shirt.

"So…what's it like being the strong silent type?" she asked.

The question caught Henry off guard. "Um...what?" He didn't really think of himself that way, but if that was the way some girls saw him, he guessed that explained why they were willing to fool around with such a loner. The smartest girls-especially the ones who were juniors or seniors-generally refused to get within ten feet of Henry if they could help it. And he couldn't really blame them.

As he scanned the hallways for faculty members that might accuse them of PDA, Henry happened to notice Neal coming out of the computer lab with his backpack bulging. The freshman quickly opened his locker, glanced around quickly, and immediately started shoving speakers and calculators into the locker. Henry stopped in his tracks as his jaw hit the floor. He almost pulled away from the girl to confront Neal right then and there, but just then a teacher walked out of a classroom and Neal shut the locker door just in time. Henry sucked in a deep breath. "I'll see you after class," he quickly mumbled to the girl as he ducked into his next classroom.

After school, Henry found Neal chilling in front of the TV in the living room.

"What are you watching?" asked Henry. "I thought there wasn't going to be anything good on today."

"This is actually pretty interesting," said Neal. "It's a movie about these two friends who are criminals and go everywhere together stealing things and hiding from the cops."

Henry turned and gave him a strange look. Neal smiled back equally strangely.

"Maybe that's what you and I should do, Henry," said Neal. "Run away, steal a car, spend our lives driving from town to town robbing places." Henry sighed. "How about it? I'll be Butch, you can be Sundance."

"Neal, we need to talk."

The younger boy looked slightly disappointed as Henry dropped down on the couch beside him and lowered his voice. "I know you've been stealing. I saw you take that money from the drawer, and I saw you sneaking equipment out of the computer lab."

Neal grinned. "Did you also see me pickpocketing from the teacher's lounge?"

"Um…no. Listen, don't take this the wrong way, but you have got to stop this."

"Why?" asked Neal.

"Because you can't just take things from people. Someone worked hard for and earned everything you've taken from them."

"I worked hard for it, too," snapped Neal. "Sneaking around is almost impossible here. There are grown-ups everywhere."

Henry wasn't sure what to say to that. Obviously, whatever happened in Neverland had robbed the younger boy of any moral scruples he might have had against theft.

"Besides," said Neal. "I don't owe these people anything, anyway. Everyone I've met here besides you has just wanted to put me in a box and tell me what to do. Don't you ever feel like you need a backup plan in case you can't take it anymore?"

"Look, I get it," said Henry, leaning over and momentarily grasping the younger boy's shoulder. "No one trusts the adults in this realm less than I do. But the way to beat the system isn't to do the exact opposite of what everyone is telling you you're supposed to do. Just go to school like I do, try to do reasonably well, and in the end you'll come out ahead. You with me?"

Neal didn't react for about a minute. Then his eyes narrowed.

"You're no better than the rest of them," he spat out. Then he ran from the living room and hid in one of the bathrooms until bedtime.

The following day, Neal refused to get out of bed and go to school, claiming he wasn't feeling well. The adults didn't push the issue, and neither did Henry. But when Henry got home from school, Neal was gone along with his meager belongings and everything he had stolen. Henry was briefly questioned, but unfortunately he had no idea where the boy might have gone.

"Is it okay if I go visit my little sister now?"

"Sure. Just remember to be home by eight."

Henry left right away and took the bus to the girls' home. When he knocked on the door, the woman in charge greeted him.

"You're in luck," she said. "Your sister is already in the visiting room."

"Really?" asked Henry. "Who's visiting her?"

"Your cousin William, of course. He just got here a few minutes ago."

Huh? "Thanks, Mrs. G." Henry marched down the hall as fast as he could without running until he reached the doorway to the visiting room. He opened it quietly. There was Neal, sitting in a plastic chair across from Henry's thirteen-year-old sister lightly planting a kiss on her lips.

Neal jerked away from Helena so fast he almost slammed back in his chair. Out of nowhere, Henry was standing in the doorway looking at him like he was about to break him in half.

"Neal…" seethed Henry angrily.

Neal gulped. "Henry, what are you doing here?"

"What the hell are you doing with my sister?"

"Whoa. I'm sorry, I didn't…"

"What's going on?" asked Helena.

"This guy is a thief," snapped Henry. "He stole money from the boys' home, and from the school, and from the teachers. And that was probably before he decided to run away."

Helena glanced at Neal with a troubled frown. "Is that true?"

Neal looked to the ground. He didn't even get a chance to respond to her before Henry marched over and grabbed him by the shirt.

"Listen to me, mister Butch-Cassidy-lost-boy-from-Neverland," sneered Henry. "First of all, nobody gets to fool around with my thirteen-year-old sister. Period. Second of all, if I were comfortable with her dating anyone, it sure as hell wouldn't be you."

"I never did anything to hurt her, Henry," said Neal softly. "I swear."

"And you're not going to," said Henry. "Because you're either going to come back to the boys' home with me and straighten yourself out, or you're going to walk out that door, disappear, and leave my family alone. Which is it gonna be?"

For a moment, Neal did nothing. Then Henry got a glimpse of his panicked face before he grabbed his backpack and tore out of the building.

"He really didn't do anything bad to me, Henry," snapped Helena. "We met in passing when I came to visit you a few weeks ago, he asked for my phone number, and then he called to talk and say how nice I looked when I saw him."

Mental note, Henry thought. If someone ever asks me for advice on how to pick up girls again, remember to tell them which one is my sister and that she's off limits if they want to live.

"And then he asked me out on a date."

Henry raised his eyebrows. "He picked me up after school and took me out for ice cream. Then he came back here with me for a few minutes and we told Mrs. G he was my cousin visiting from Boston and she believed us. He's been back here four times since counting today, and he's brought me flowers every time."

Henry's face softened slightly. "Did you guys, ever, um, you know, make out or anything?"

Helena shook her head. "You just saw our first kiss," she said sadly.

Henry already regretted having judged Neal as harshly as he had. The boy wasn't that much older than Helena, and while dating her was still clearly unacceptable, he couldn't be any more to blame than her. And he clearly still needed help. "Do you have any idea where he might have gone?" asked Henry. Helena shook her head. "If he ever comes to see you again, tell him I'm sorry I reacted like that. I assumed he was more like…never mind." Helena bit her lip and nodded solemnly. Henry sighed. "Well, in my defense, the part about him stealing money from all those places was true. I saw him do it."

"Well, I didn't know that," Helena admitted. "That's probably what he used to buy flowers for me, too." She closed her eyes tightly as if she were afraid she was about to cry.

"Come here," said Henry. He pulled his sister into a tight hug. "Everything's gonna be alright." He wasn't sure he was doing a particularly good job of consoling her. There were few things he knew less about than how to mend a thirteen-year-old girl's broken heart.

"What was that you said to him, by the way?" asked Helena. "About Butch Cassidy and the Lost Boys?"

"I called him that because he was a thief," said Henry truthfully.

"Figures," said Helena. "You've always been fond of fantasy metaphors." After another few seconds, she stepped back from her brother and looked him in the eye seriously. "When am I going to get to hear the real story about our parents, Henry?" Her big brother's face twisted uncomfortably and he starred very hard at an empty bookcase. "I mean it. I'm not a baby anymore. Whatever it is, I can handle it."

"Someday," said Henry firmly.

"Why not now?"

"Let's just say that right now, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."