Next chapter! Woohoo! I didn't plan on updating today but I thought that I better give you guys something new because you have been so patient. Thank you for the lovely reviews on my last chapter. They made me feel a lot better. Hope you like this one! Please leave a review and tell me. Also, just giving you a heads up that this chapter contains a lot of swearing because we all know that the Lost Boys have filthy mouths.

Chapter 9: Brains Over Brawn

Peter's POV

"Do you wanna play a game?" Blinky asked unexpectedly, breaking the silence.

Beside me, Nibs lifted his head and glared heatedly at the other boy. "No, I don't want to play a fucking game, you idiot.

Any other time, I would have got up him for talking like that, but at that moment I couldn't have cared less. The situation called for swearing and bad language.

We had all been taken below deck after my fail attempt of getting the boys back. Apparently it was too dicey to stay above as we were "flight risks" as Hook had put it. My back rested against the timber wall of the cramped cell and my head lolled forward. Everywhere inch of my body hurt and it felt like I was one giant, walking bruise.

I couldn't remember much from last night. All I could recall was leaving Wendy behind, finding the ship, attempting to save the boys, and being surrounded by pirates. The rest was blurry, but if my battered face was anything to go by, the pirates had managed to beat the shit out of me. So fast-forward a day or two and here we were: trapped, bloody, beaten and holding next to no chance of escaping.

Great. Just fucking great.

To make matters worse, I was going out of my mind with worry, terrified that Wendy would do something incredibly stupid, like come after us. If she did, I would personally wring her neck.

"I was just asking," Blinky snapped back at Nibs, his eyes narrowing.

"Why don't you do everyone a favour and just keep your damn mouth shut?" Nibs suggested nastily.

"What's up your ass?"

Nibs looked at Blinky as if he had just said the stupidest thing he had ever heard. "I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with being stuck in a cell on-board a bloody pirate ship!"

Blinky's eyes scanned the room as if just realising where we were. "Really? I hadn't noticed. Thanks for pointing that out," Blinky said sarcastically as he crossed his arms over his chest. "And you call me the dumbass."

Before I could react, Nibs lunged across the small cell and grabbed Blinky by the front of the shirt, throwing him to the floor. He straddled his stomach and spiked his elbow back. I jumped to my feet quickly, ignoring the pain coming from my bruised stomach. Nibs managed to land a good shot on Blinky before Marmaduke and Slightly were able to pull his off.

"You stupid bastard!" Nibs screamed at the wide-eyed twin who was sprawled on the floor with blood dripping from his lip. "I'll kick your ass." He still thrashed against the boys' hold.

I grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking him away as he made another attempt to get at Blinky. "Nib, stop it!" I commanded, shaking him roughly.

"I'll kill him, Peter. I'll kill him," Nibs swore, his eyes never leaving Blinky. "He is such a fucking idiot."

Seeing the rage on the other Lost Boy's face, Blinky wisely stood up and retreated to the opposite side of the cell. "He hit me," he said more to himself than any of us. "He actually hit me."

"I'll do more than that, you little fu-"

I wrapped once arm around Nibs' chest to keep his from lunging at Blinky again while the other covered his mouth. Despite my attempts to muffle his words, we all heard hem clear as day. Until then, I had never known that Nibs had such and…extensive vocabulary.

Little Curly stared at him with eyes that were as wide as saucers. Tootles covered the young boy's ears with his hands. "You don't need to hear that, Curly," he said.

Once Nibs had ran out of either words or breath, he finally stopped, his shoulders sagging slightly. I removed my hand from over his mouth. "I'm calm," he told me, and hesitantly I loosened my hold on him, making sure that he wasn't about to move to strangle Blinky again. He didn't, so I stepped back.

Nibs' eyes flickered to Blinky's busted lip. "Sorry," he grumbled, though we all knew that he didn't mean it in the slightest. The other boy nodded as Nibs pushed away from me and stalked over to the steel bars of the cell. He gripped them tightly. "Hey, you!" he yelled, his voice projecting down the walkway. I eyes Nib's curious, unsure of what he was doing.

A moment later, footsteps sounded and before long, a pirate appeared. He wore a red shirt with a set of white rosary beads strung around his neck. I fought the urge to scoff at him. These men were anything but servants of the Lord.

"What you want?" he said gruffly.

"Can we get some food?" Nibs asked. He looked at the pirate expectantly, who in turn threw his head back and laughed.

"You aint getting nothing but the plank, boy," he told him, flashing his crooked teeth.

"Please," Nibs tried.

The pirate shook his head. "No can do."

"Come on," Nibs whined. "We all know that you are going to kill us. Think of this as our last meal." He gestured to the rosary the man wore. "What would Jesus do?"

Tootles sniggered and the pirate cut him a sharp glare. The unkempt man seemed to straighten. "Well, my great uncle was a priest," he boasted proudly.

"Exactly." Nibs lifted the front of his shirt us, exposing his stomach. "Look, you can practically see my ribs. I'm starving to death. You don't want me to cark it before I get the change to walk the plank, do you?" I rolled my eyes before I could stop myself.

The pirate scratched his stubbily jaw, contemplating. "Well…Captain wouldn't like that."

"No, he wouldn't," agreed Nibs. "Hook will think of you as being intelligent because you are making sure we are kept alive for him. And you look like a smart man." He was really laying it on thick now.

"I am," the man confirmed. His chest seemed to puff up at Nibs' praise. This man really was stupid. "I'll get you some food." The dumb pirate turned and strode away.

As soon of he was out of sight and hearing distance, Nibs turned around. An incredibly smug smirk took up most of his face. He flung his arms out wide and took an exaggerated bow. "And that, boys, is how it is done." Curly clapped loudly like one would at the end of a play. I just rolled my eyes again and laughed.

"Well, isn't someone a smooth talker," Tootles observed with a wicked grin. "If only you were that good with the girls. Oh wait, I believe that one-liner you used on that mermaid last month was pure genius. The way she slapped you practically screamed love at first sight."

Nibs' eyes narrowed. "Piss off. This smooth talker just got you a meal," he said, thumping his own chest.

I sat back down against the wall. My stomach rumbled, reminding me of how long it had been since I had last ate.

A few minutes later, the pirate retuned. In one calloused hand, he held a large plate that was piled high with cold rice and pieces of bread. In his other was a flask that I presumed contained water. He squatted down and slid the dish and thermos under the bars.

"Thank you," Nibs said.

The pirate nodded as he stood. He was about to leave when another man's voice filled the air. "Oi, Coles, where's Captain?"

A dark man jogged into view, coming to a stop next to the first. The first thing I noticed was that he was huge. The man was a skyscraper of pure muscle. His arms were as thick as Curly's waist and were completely covered in tattoos. Multiple silver hoops pierced one of his ears.

"Last I saw him, Dawn, he was in his cabin. Why?" the first pirate-Coles-asked.

The second pirate, who I now knew was called Dawn, glanced at us quickly before speaking. "A girl's been spotted on the shore. The boys brought her aboard and now she's calling for Hook."

My stomach dropped to my feet as all the blood left my face.

-X-X-X-

Wendy's POV

This idea had been much smarter in my head, I thought as the pirate behind me grasped my forearm firmly and walked me along the deck as if I was going to take off at any moment. Didn't he realise that I had boarded the ship willingly? Other unfriendly-looking men watched on with curiosity.

Once I had been lead to the ship by that strange cat, I had faced one slight problem: I didn't know how to get the pirates' attention. I didn't have matches that I could start a fire with. I didn't have a gigantic white flat that I could wave around. I couldn't swim out the ship and attempt to climb aboard-they would probably shook me on sight.

All I had was…absolutely nothing.

So, being the great problem solver that I was, I did the only thing that I was able to think of. I walked into the water until it was up to my calves and kicked, screamed and waved my arms around like a complete idiot. I'm positive that I looked like an absolute nutcase, but it obviously worked because here I was, little over twenty minutes later, being marched towards a set of double doors below the upper deck of the ship.

The boys and Peter were nowhere in sight. My stomach tightened in worry and I silently begged that they were okay. Once outside the doors, the pirate stopped and knocked. He stepped back, shooting me a half-confused, half-suspicious look. Moments later the doors swung open and out stepped the man that had managed to frighten me so profusely the last time I had been in Neverland. I gulped, praying that I was still as good of a story teller that I had been.

If I wasn't, I was as good as dead.

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