Monster // Peter Pan (Robbie Kay) (OUAT)

Chapter Thirty Four

"I've..." He began, his mouth hanging open slightly, sucking in a slow breath, "I've heard rumors."

My stomach throbbed with disgust. "Oh," I said sourly, throwing my bow to the grass. The arrow rest clammered against the shaft.  "Is this about-"

"Chester," Gale finished, "yes."

I crossed my arms, my bottom lip trembling. "Oh," I repeated.

"Well," The sea salt whites of his eyes went a little blood shot. "I just wanted you to know that-"

"I didn't deserve what he did to me," I snapped. "I didn't ask for it. I didn't-"

"Hey, hey, relax," he cooed, clutching my forearms, still pressed firmly against me, "I don't believe a word from those boys' mouths. Promise."

I nodded, pursing my lips to keep a sob from rolling like a wave.

"Are you still mad at me?" I asked, quietly and carefully.

Gale's eyes welled with a gray fog. "No, no, of course not."  He grabbed my face with his sooty, sweat stricken hands.  His hot breath licked over my neck and ears as he spoke softly. "I was stupid and childish," he said, "I wasn't acting myself. I promise I'm over it."

"You promise me?" I confirmed.

He chuckled lightly, the curvature of his thumb caressing my jaw. "Yes, Andria, I do promise you."

"I've missed you," I said, clutching Gale's cloak. "It's been really hard to, you know," I worried my lip in between my teeth, "not be able to talk to anyone."

He pressed his cool lips to my temple, making me jump.

"I shouldn't have abandoned you when Neverland caved in on you," he said, his voice gentle and smooth, his humid breath sticking to the moisture along my hairline, "and I'll never do it again."

The comfort that folded around me like a star speckled sheet was suddenly torn, and slashed, and burned, and buried.

"Whore!"

Like a banshee cry, the revolting screech of a witch scratched the balmy air into dilapidated ribbons.  Oliver's horrid voice cut between his cupped hands. I could hear the jeers of Chester and Oliver from the overcast shade of the oak tree.

Gale breathed in bitterly, sucking in a heated breath. His collarbones sunk beneath his cloak has he spun around, his boot digging into the soil and crunching the grass all around the heel.

"Grow the fuck up!" Gale cried.

Oliver's eyebrows jumped. "So the mouse can speak!"

"You need to leave her alone," Gale warned, "you need to stop causing trouble with all of us.  You're a threat to everyone on this island."

Oliver hollered in laughter, a scuff chopping the silence.  He sauntered a couple steps closer, authoritively, tilting his neck to the side so the shadows beneath the oak lapped their black lengths down his throat. "Or what, big boy?" He teased.

Gale's fists clenched as he jammed his hand beneath a fold his cloak.  Ever so slowly, he retracted his arm. I squinted suddenly as the daylight glinted off of...a sword?

Oliver slid his tongue along his teeth, smirking viciously. "Saber," he demanded.

Chester unveiled a weapon from the oak tree and tossed it to his companion, who snatched it from the air, a distinct clang singing into the forest.

A silence settled, and the sky and the sea held it's blue breath, waiting patiently for one to disturb the universe.

"So you wanna duel?" Oliver called, his echo falling hollow in the wood.