I know! That darn Tiger Lily! The nerve. I'm on a roll now. Almost done with chapter 12, but here's chapter 11 to tide you over :) Enjoy!
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Peter took Tiger Lily's shoulders in his hands and pushed her away breaking the kiss. He held her at arms length.
"What are you doing?!" he asked, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.
"Doing what I never had the courage to do before," she said. She wriggled free of his grasp and wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him again, more fervently.
Peter yelped, and flew up into the air out of reach of Tiger Lily's embrace. He backed into the corner of the ceiling.
"Tiger Lily, what has gotten into you? You're acting like, like…"
"A woman?" she finished.
"Well… yeah," he said.
"I am a woman Peter. And you are a man. Now come down here and behave like one," she said, hands on her hips.
Peter dared not move from the safety of the ceiling.
"I will not kiss you again," she said tapping her foot.
Peter reluctantly floated back down to earth, careful to stay a few feet away out of reach.
"I'm not a man," he said quietly, forgetting the conversation he'd had with John, only that morning.
"Haven't you noticed the changes Peter? The changes in yourself? Look! Your muscles are bigger," she said gesturing to his arms. Peter looked at his biceps perplexed, and then smiled at them. They were larger, and they looked nice.
"You are taller," she said. He looked around the room. His head did come up higher than the last time he'd been there.
"And your voice is the voice of a man." Peter made a little noise in his throat to test the idea, and found it was true.
"You have hair on your chest," she whispered. Peter hadn't noticed himself backed into the corner of the dwelling until it was too late. Tiger Lily placed her hand on his chest, running her fingers down the soft fine hairs that had sprung up there. Goosebumps rose on his skin, and his heart thundered in his ribcage. She gazed up at him from under her eyelashes.
"Tell me that Wendy never made you feel this way," she said closing her eyes and leaning closer.
"Yes!" he cried. Tiger Lily smiled and sped her descent on his mouth. "I mean yes, she does," he said quickly.
Tiger Lily's eyes snapped open. She frowned as tears sprung to her eyes. She shoved Peter into the wall and turned away.
Peter breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed his body as the goose bumps faded away. But he saw Tiger Lily's slumped shoulders, and walked up behind her. No matter how crazy she was acting, she was still one of his closest friends. He put his hands on her arms, but she shrugged them off violently.
"Leave. I hate you Peter Pan," she cried.
"Tiger Lily…"
"GO!" she screamed, turning to face him.
Normally he would have fled. An angry Tiger Lily was not to be reckoned with. But he'd had enough today. The girl he wanted was kidnapped. He had had to deal with unruly children all morning. He'd come to a life changing epiphany and an embarrassing emotional breakdown in front of another person, and now he had been assaulted by a friend and then brushed aside. He was not going to back down, not now.
"Tiger Lily!" he shouted back grabbing her shoulders. "Tell me where Wendy is! I know you know, and I will rip this place apart if that's what it takes to find her!"
Tiger Lily's eyes went wide with shock. As Peter finished his rant she burst into tears, and covered her face with her hands.
Peter felt overwhelmed himself. What were these women doing to him? "Please stop crying Tiger Lily, please. I can't take it!" He'd never seen her cry before. She was a warrior. "Warriors never cry," she'd told him once after being wounded with a knife on a Pirate raid. She'd not shed a tear then, though he could tell the pain was terrible. Now she was blubbering red faced in front of him and there was no wound on the surface to be found.
She didn't stop, leaving Peter completely out of his element as to what to do. After several minutes she sniffed a few times. "Would you do that for me?" she asked almost imperceptibly.
"What?" asked Peter wrinkling his nose.
"Would you do that for me? Come looking for me? Tear a village apart if I was kidnapped?" Peter shook his head. Females, he thought. Didn't she know how he felt about her? She was his best friend, closer than a sister.
"Of course I would," he said. She sniffed again, and looked up into his face.
"Really?" she asked quietly.
"Yes. You are the bravest, most courageous person I know. And you've been truer to me than a brother."
She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. He embraced her back, feeling the sisterly affection from her again. But he still needed to know where Wendy was.
He pulled out of her arms, and looked at her seriously. "Tiger Lily, I need to find Wendy. I know you know something. Please help me, please!"
Tiger Lily gazed up at him, and it was much higher than she usually looked, for he really had been growing. "I can't tell you Peter," she said. "I can't."
Peter was getting angry now. "Why? What have you done?"
She shifted her eyes back and forth from his face to the door. "She's endangering us all! The whole island. I need to send her back where she belongs. Back to where you found her."
He stared at her, trying to comprehend what she was talking about.
He gave her a little shake. "What are you saying? Endangering us? How? Show me where she is!"
Just then a commotion from outside made it's way to their ears. Tiger Lily ran out glad to be free of Peter's scrutiny and Peter followed hoping that the noise meant Wendy. He ran out to see, just as he heard Slightly's voice cry, "We found her Peter!"