Peter Pan
A Young Boy No More
By Raekitty13
Disclaimer: I really don't think James had such issues getting his story out to his readers...
Author's Notes: Mkay, thank you's: -BeeVee-THEEAmazing, MistFairie93, Passionate Fire, erm… "someone", & Luna32.
Chapter Thirteen- A Fairy Tail Romance
In front of me hung an odd pair. Tinker Bell having been flying towards Peter and I from the left was frozen in mid-air. The air was perfectly fine, if not a bit warm... how had she managed to freeze like that?
Looking over my shoulder, barely even a foot away from me, I saw Prince
Okami. He too was frozen in place, hovering at a dangerous height above the ground. Bile raised in my throat as suddenly I realized they had made eye contact. Hook's evil plan that I had to carry out, had already begun to unravel without me even noticing.
I knew what was going on. Their stances weren't actually caused by black magic but red. It was pure magic of the heart showing physically what was happening mentally as their memories of each other slowly un-melted and resurfaced, no longer suppressed by past enchantments.
Also resurfacing was the memory of where Hook's body lay buried from the world. The memory I needed most to save Okami, yet I hated the most for it would kill Peter. It was dreaded yet needed. Cursed yet blessed. It was so damned messed up!
"Wh-who's fairy is this?" Peter whispered, seemingly afraid to kill the moment by speaking too loud.
"Mine." I whispered back.
"Ohhhhhhhhh!" Came a chorused exclamation from the lost boys and to my surprise, Tonya.
"What?" I asked.
What did they know that I didn't?
Did they know my secret?
"Story time!" Tonya trilled. "I have another story for you Jess. One told to me by my mom. This one too is a romance story, but this romance is different."
"Different how?" I asked, suspicion etched in my voice subconsciously.
"Yes," Peter's voice was as guarded as mine. "Please, do tell."
"You'd like that wouldn't you, Peter?" Tonya teased. "Wendy was a story teller too, you know. You've always had a thing for story tellers, haven't you?"
"SHUT UP ABOUT WENDY AND TELL YOUR DAMNED STORY!" Peter exploded unexpectedly scaring all of us.
"Peter, where did you learn such words?" I asked hoarsely.
"You, Love." He smirked.
I fell for his taunt and jabbed him roughly in the ribs. "Jerk-face."
"Ask dumb questions and dumb answers you shall receive."
"If this story is as true as you are, that's not what she's upset about." Tonya remarked with a slight smile.
"What on earth are you rambling about?" Peter demanded with a shake of his head. "Just tell the story!"
"Okay..." Surprisingly she had the story telling talents of her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.
"Fairies are said to be born for every boy and girl. They live off of those select children's laughs, their happy thoughts, their belief in the surreal. They live because those children believe they do. As soon as the child believes other wise-"
She had made a cutting motion across her throat indicating the death of the poor fairy.
"Most children never actually meet their fairy and vise versa, but when they do, it is said that in order for the fairies to pay back their debt to the children, the fairies help them to find their true love.
"Amazingly this is extremely easy for the little critters because they are destined to love the fairy of their child's lover. They know they've found the right fairy not only by their pure instinctual feelings of love, but because they are transformed into cat forms. Sometimes, the fairies find each other before the children, other times the children actually beat the fairies. It doesn't happen very often, but as you all can see, it's happened here."
"No." Peter and I answered together, syllable for syllable. "They found each other first."
I turned quickly to Peter. Ho-how did he know that?
His eyes held the same question for me. Did I dare to ask it?
Tonya beat me to it. "What are you two rambling on about?"
How the hell was I to answer that with out giving away the ending of the story?
"Look at Tink!" shouted the lost boy who had found me.
Looking out of instinct I saw a bright white light engulf the fairy girl. Suddenly sitting on the ground about five feet below where Tinker Bell had been was a white Persian kitten. It was tiny, really tiny, almost too small to truly be a living cat when it suddenly meowed.
Surprisingly I understood the meow. And the little cat mewed it once more, "Okami! Okami is that you?"
Out of pure amazement I turned to see a light similar to the one that engulfed Tink, swallowed Okami too. The only difference was the color, Okami's an excruciating dark yet brilliant purple.
Okami's dark purple cat form was rubbing lovingly against Tink's before anyone could even blink an eye. He called to her, "Yes, Love, it's me."
"The thoughts..."
"I know... shhh. It's alright."
We were all amazed. So amazed that talking wasn't an option. All that could be heard for a long moment was the happy purring of the two fairy cats.
"What just happened?" asked the shortest Lost Boy. There seemed to be about five of them present.
"Jess and Peter's fairies just transformed into cats..." muttered the tall, lanky one with dark brown curls.
"Jessica and Peter sitting in a tree!" sang a pudgy little boy of about nine.
"Actually," I said coldly. "I'm sitting in the mud."
Peter laughed, almost causing me to lose my angry expression, almost. "That we are. But I can find a tree if you want."
Peter.
Everybody else was laughing. But no matter how much I wantedto laugh, I couldn't.
I did how ever manage a smile and Peter must have taken it a different way because he squeezed my hand and whispered, "I was being serious."
I whispered back, "Peter, do you even know how that song goes?"
"No," he said. "Sing it for me."
I wrinkled my nose. "So and so-"
"Jessica and Peter," He interrupted me.
"Jessica and Peter," I restarted loving the sound of our names together. "Sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes LOVE, then comes MARRIAGE, then comes a BABY in the BABY CARRIAGE."
It was Peter's turn for his nose to wrinkle and his whole face turned deep red. "It's about growing up!"
"Yeah, pretty lame, huh?"
"And here I thought we would be doing something fun in that tree…" he complained.
I actually laughed, causing him to look up at me, the look in his eyes was so stunning I almost forgot to breath.
"You know," he said quietly, his breath tickling my ear as he whispered into it yet again. "You should laugh more often."
I gave him an odd look, quirking one eyebrow. "And why would that be?"
"Because," He continued to whisper in a breathless way. "It sounds so… lovely."
Okay, I'll admit, at that, I stopped breathing.
Peter.
"Walk with me?" He asked standing up, not noticing my lack of breathing.
I just nodded and he helped me up.
We wandered off, away from the group, hand in hand. All thoughts of Hook completely gone, even though Tink and Okami were prancing around our feet, weaving in and out as we walked. Peter, it seemed, had a way of clearing my head of all other thoughts but him.
"Jess," Peter's voice was quiet. "I-I know you don't want to talk about this, but was your mother's name Kristal?"
I just stared at him. I wasn't angry with him. I wasn't happy either but I wasn't going to strangle him this time. His hand in mine had some sort of calming effect on me. But, how did he know my mother's name?
"Yes."
"Okay…" He stared at the ground as though he didn't know how to continue, or even if he wanted to. "I-I have to tell you something…but…you might want to sit down."
He gestured toward a log and I sat.
"Umm, where to start?" He asked. He was looking at me in pity. "Okay, you know that I help dead children pass over, right?"
I nodded.
"Well, normally I never help adults, but your mother was an exception. She refused to pass over. Not with her young daughter waiting for her at home. She had promised to return home. Because she was fretting about her child, they sent her to me, hoping I could help her cross over peacefully.
"I wasn't sure what to do. She was sobbing and trying so hard to go back. I couldn't get her to calm down, no matter what I said she would just freak out more. Then I asked her to tell me about her daughter. I wasn't sure why, it was all she seemed to be able to talk about though, so I figured maybe it would help her.
"She, your mother, she loved you Jessie. She told proudly how well you could count, read, and add. You were so sweet. She told me about that one time you tripped down the stairs and never noticed anything was wrong with you at the age of two. You were too worried with why your mother was crying to realize you were bleeding from the head. And then when you had to get stitches, you held still and were a brave little girl.
"Then she told me about how you were going to be when you grew up. "Peter," She said. "You'd absolutely love Jessie when she grows up. She'll have my wondrous curls but hers will be slightly redder than mine. She'll be sweet and kind… but with out me, she may need help. If you ever come across her, can I trust you to help her?" Of course I promised her that I would."
I hadn't realized how hard I was crying until he paused in his story. I also didn't realize that he was holding me as tight as he was. He was telling me of my mother's last words. He was the last one to speak to my mother before she was lost to any living person forever.
But instead of hating him, instead of wishing to be him, I loved him all the more for it. For comforting my mother when I couldn't, for keeping his promise, for telling me about all of this, for simply caring, for holding me when I need him without having told him so.
"Jessie," him, using my mother's nickname for me, suddenly didn't hurt. After all, it was the first name he knew me by. "I- this is going to sound stupid…"
He was subconsciously wiping away my tears while looking away from me. "I- I was really looking forward to meeting you. I've dreamed about it for a long time. The stories your mother told me about when you were younger, to how you would be when you grew up-"
"And now that you have, I've disappointed you?" I couldn't look at him.
"No," He whispered smiling down at me. "You've proven to be even better than your mother described. I'm very honored to meet you. Will you live here with me in the Never Land forever?"
Talk about not being able to breathe...
Author's Notes: Thank you Luna32, I owe you BIG time.