Peter Pan Imagines OUAT

The Return (Part 3)

"Are you okay Y/n? I'm sorry I scared you." He said softly. Y/n nodded and took a step back.

"Yeah, I'm great. If you count wanting to die as 'great.'"

"What happened?" 

"Well, of course, children have dreams, fantasies even, but when I returned home. I was considered crazy. There was no Peter Pan, there was no Neverland, there were never mermaids that swam the oceans, I never flew. I was delusional. My therapist boiled it down to lonesome. Said that due to a lack of feeling loved, I ran away and created a world of my own. I started to believe it because as you grow older, you lose that childlike sense of happily ever after, but the problem was, I never actually remembered what went on during those few months I was missing. All I could remember was being in Neverland. And it felt so real. I started to think I was actually crazy. I got bullied, my parents hated me because I was always in my head. After my mom died in a stupid car accident, my dad became a drunkard. There were few moments I ever saw him sober, and even then, he was hungover. No matter what happened, it was my fault, and it is. Somehow. Made me hate myself, whatever I did wrong, I could never make it right, and trust me, I tried, I tried so hard. I tried until I couldn't take it anymore and ran away, and all of a sudden, I'm not so crazy anymore. Or I am and I just can't get out of my own head!" Y/n ranted, crying all the meanwhile. Neither of them spoke for a few moments as she cried.

"There is nothing crazy about you Y/n. Never was. People don't like to believe what they cant see. What you thought you imagined while here on Neverland, it was all real. I remember it vividly. You were just a scared little girl at the time. I took it upon myself to make sure you loved it here. When you asked to go home, it broke my heart. I thought I was going a pretty good job but... you still wanted to go home."

"Peter, I didn't realize then what would have happened as I grew up. I never should have left because, even though it was a long time ago, I know that I loved it here. I wanted to come back only a few weeks after I got home. I missed you so much, Peter."

"I missed you too." He said smiling before pulling her into a tight hug that relieved the pain of being away for so long. Y/n missed being in his arms, missed the feeling of love that surrounded her in his embrace.

So from then on, Y/n found herself in a place she never believed she would call home again. The reintroduction to the lost boys went smoothly. Felix, the blonde one from earlier, apologized. Y/n had vague memories of the boys, but most of them seemed to remember her. The only ones who hadn't remembered were the ones who recently came to the island. She got her old hut back. The little bed was still made, and quite frankly, too small for her now, but Peter said he would fix it up for her. Some of the toys and stuffed animals she vaguely remembered playing with were set up neatly near the wall.

Peter tried to catch up with her, to see what he had missed while she was away when he spotted something that set him on his nerves. As Y/n spoke about her parents, he noticed that her arms were covered in scars from her elbow to her wrists, and certainly, they weren't accidental.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said, grabbing her arm softly. "Why didn't you tell me you had done this to yourself?" The old sense of worry he had for her was returning.

"Because it wasn't that big of a deal. It happens. It was my only way to cope. But I'm fine now. You don't have to worry" she said, sensing that he was on edge. He looked sadly at her arm for a few seconds before leaning down to softly kiss her arm. It reminded him of the times he would kiss her knees after she fell and scraped them. Then he would ask her the same question every time.

"Will you let me heal them?" but this time, he was saddened. The idea that him leaving her and then doing this to herself was heartwrenching, but he wanted to fix it. He made another vow to himself that he would never let her get hurt again, and maybe this time she would stay with him.