The First Lost Boy (Wattys 2017) ON HOLD

s e v e n

Read A/N at the end :)

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They had been sitting on the wall at the edge of the lake, their legs dipped into the Luke warm water. Tristan had become quite the chatter box over the past hour, talking openly as he sat between Gwenevieve and Harry. He mostly asked Gwen questions, voicing his curiosity about her and about the life she had before she arrived to Neverland. Harry tried his best to steer the conversation elsewhere when he caught on to Gwen's crest fallen mood when he asked about her life back in London. It worked enough to distract Tristan from asking any more questions about it but Harry still noticed the way Gwen seemed to be deep in thought as Tristan now spoke to Harry. He wanted to listen to him, considering this was the first time Harry had ever heard him talk this much. But his attention kept drifting to Gwen, who was staring down at the water deep in thought. Her eyebrows were drawn together and the descending sunset gleamed against the water and left a reflection on her face, causing the color in her eyes to stand out more. Harry thought she looked very pretty, especially with the way her long hair had curled naturally after wetting it.

"Harry, Gwen taught me how to tie a knot today." Tristan spoke out of nowhere, the mention of her name pulling Gwen's attention back to the boy. She blinked, his words registering after a moment before she smiled and looked at Harry timidly. Harry raised an eyebrow, the corner of his pink lips quirking up into a smirk.

"Did she now?"

"Yes! She let m-me practice on her." He shared, briefly glancing at Gwen shyly. "She said she would teach me more things."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Like how to swim!" He said excitedly. "That way, I don't have to sit behind and watch whenever you all go out to play in the sea."

Harry frowned, the idea of him swimming by himself in the big ocean not sitting well with Harry. Even if Tristan did learn to swim, it wouldn't be safe for him to be out there on his own. The waves had a tendency of being strong and Tristan was quite small for his age. He wasn't strong either and one strong wave could drown the child. Harry knew this, but he also didn't want to discourage the boy. So he smiled tightly.

"Well, we will see how well you catch on."

"I will!" Tristan looked to Gwen with hopeful eyes. "Y-you'll still teach me, won't you?"

"Of course I will." She grinned. "We could start tomorrow if you'd like."

"Yes!"

"You're supposed to be helping the others with the slingshots." Harry cut in, making Tristan's shoulders slump in disappointment. He didn't bother trying to argue with Harry. He knew who had the authority and he wasn't one to test it like some of the other boys.

"Oh come on, Harry." Gwen said, drawing Harry's gaze to land on her. She gave him a small smile and brought her foot up out of the water to lightly flick water at Harry with her toe. "Let the boy have a swim lesson with me. The slingshots won't be going anywhere."

"No, they won't. But it needs to get done."

"So have one of the other boys do it. You can't tell me every single one of them has something to do tomorrow. I saw plenty of them playing games. I don't think it would kill them to take over the slingshots for a day, would it?"

"Well no..."

"Plus! He's six! I don't even know why you have him doing that job. He's a kid."

"It's a simple job, one of the easiest and if you hadn't noticed, we're all kids here."

"Not us."