Neverland - Peter Pan - OUAT Fanfiction

Chapter 35 - Set up

I stomped passed Liam, unwilling to continue the conversation any further. I ignored the shouts of protest from behind and pressed onward, back towards Legend. I moved on, scenarios of confronting Pan rolling through my mind like a tumbler; none of the realistic. I sighed, realizing a single conversation had seemingly shattered my mental resolve.

My boot squelched into a soft, slimy substance and an unpleasant aroma arose. I looked down to find I had stepped on what looked like a rather large, rotting mushroom. There was a cluster of iridescent blue mushrooms in a small circle around me, all healthy looking but for the one I had stepped on, now bruised from my boot. It looked like it had been rotting for a while now for no apparent reason. I didn't think much of it, wiping my soiled boot on a small tuft of grass and continuing on.

I made do with the small cluster of flowers I had and arranged them on the table. It wasn't long before the boys started to file into the dining hall as if drawn by the smell of food. I scooped up the berry dressing and began ladling it out over the salads as the boys began to sit down and dig in.

Soon everyone was seated, but for an absent Pan. It didn't take a lot of convincing for the boys to be seated but for many, eating the food I had slaved over was a different story.

"Salad?" Daxon complained, pushing the leaves around with his utensil and continuing to grumble. I poured a generous amount of dressing over his salad.

"Oh, come on, at least give it a try." I prodded.

The scraping of wood on wood sounded and I glanced over to see Nate shoving his bowl of salad away.

"I'm not eating this." Came the foreseeable snarky comment from the redhead.

"Oh, come on Nate." Came a friendly voice from across the table, "She obviously put a bit of time into this." Countered Seth.

"For all I know she could have poisoned this food." Nate said a bit too smugly. But the comment made a few of the boys pause mid mouthful.

"To get rid of you, that wouldn't be such a bad idea." I halfheartedly joked, pouring some dressing over Nate's salad.

He immediately pushed the bowl in front of Timothy who was sitting next to him.

"I'm certainly not going to risk it." Spat Nate.

An oblivious Timothy dug right in, and I continued ladling out dressing until I had covered all the boys and sat down to my own meal. Pan came in then, sitting at the head of the table, surveying his crew as a king would his subpar subjects.

I crumpled inwardly as his eyes roved from the boys seated nearby, to me. I looked away for a moment, then steeled myself and turned to return the gaze, but he was no longer watching me. Instead, his eyes had settled on one individual in particular.

I glanced to where Pan was looking to find a pale Timothy staring at his half-eaten salad, small hands gripping the table, knuckles whitening. Timothy coughed once, then again. His small body was soon wracked with a coughing fit and everyone paused in time to see him tumble from his chair onto the floor.

Nearly everyone stood to their feet in alarm as Pan rushed to the small boy's side.

"I knew it, she poisoned my food!" shouted Nate, pointing at me.

Heads turned in my direction and I stood speechless in utter shock. How was this happening? I looked to the boy on the floor who had ceased to cough and now looked to be writhing in pain.

"N-No!" I sputtered.

"You said as much!" Nate growled.

"I would never!" I shot back.