Take Me to Neverland || OUAT

9: Counting Stars

"Morning, love," a deep British voice mumbled. I glanced up to see Peter half awake with a smirk spread across his lips. "Care for breakfast?" He asked, yawning.

I nodded, smiling. "Sure, but after I take a quick shower."

His eyes widened and he hesitated, "y-you cannot go outside of camp alone, you know the rules."

"Relax," I teased him, "I promise it'll be be quick."

Without listening to another word, I made my way down the tree house and out of the camp.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, by myself.

I enjoyed being out in the woods alone, there was a special feeling that felt similar to being at home.

Pacing myself to the waterfall, I glanced around to make sure no one was following me. To my relief, the only thing staring back was the vast expanse of forestry.

Sighing, I turned back around to take off my knee-high boots.

"If I were you, I'd take the buckle off first," a British voice commented.

I whipped around and saw tufts of brunette hair behind a mischievous grin.

"Peter? What are you doing here? I need to shower!" I yelled, shooing him away, "now go. Leave."

He didn't budge even when I pushed him as hard as I could. Yet no matter how hard I tried, his smirk never left his face.

"What if I told you I needed to freshen up too?"

I shook my head. "What if I told you that you can always do that alone some other time?"

He grinned and shrugged. "It's more enjoyable this way."

"Not in my case," I stated. "Can't I just take a simple shower without you in it?"

"Sorry, love," he grinned, "no can do. And besides, we can always turn our backs to each other, no harm done."

This is impossible. He is impossible. His devilish smirk grew wider by the second. So of course, the banter between us broke away as I sighed in defeat.

"Fine, but keep your word," I warned. "Oh, and for precautions, I'll make a few adjustments."

A curtain appeared and floated in midair, dividing the spring into two equal parts.

"You must always ruin the fun," he grinned, but did didn't argue. With a shake of his head, he smiled, "I've finally met my match."

"Well, like you said before," I said, glancing up at him. Our eyes locked as I whispered, "the angel has finally met the devil."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The shower was quick, simple, and quite entertaining.

Peter kept making remarks like:

"This water is cold... like my soul."

"Have you noticed how sexy I've gotten lately?"

"Ew, there is hair in my soap."

"No seriously, this isn't my hair. This is so gross."

The whole entire time, I have tried my best to keep my focus on showering as quickly as possible. But thanks to his non-stop talking, it was nearly impossible to not get off-topic.

"I'm quite the cat person," he commented through the curtain dividing us. His voice projected clearly as I lathered soap onto myself.

"Well I'm quite the dog person, so we will be having major conflicts," I called in his direction.

I could hear his chuckle from the other side, along with the trickling of water from the cascade above us. "We'll see, Feisty, we'll see."

The sound of wet footsteps lapping the rock announced his finish. I stood there, in the spring for a second before I decided that it was time for me to get out as well.

My feet shivered once they stepped onto the cold rock surface. Wrapping a towel around myself, I felt like a wet mess. My hair was dripping and my teeth were chattering. The mornings on Neverland have never been crisper.

He eyed me with a smirk on his face. "Cold?"

I turned around to find myself facing his vibrant presence. His lips were placed into a grin. "And you're not?" I asked.

He shook his head with a grin and shrugged. "The cold never bothered me anyway."

"You're crazy," I smiled, trying my best to preserve my body heat so that I wouldn't die of hypothermia.

"And you're crazy beautiful," he shot back, raising an eyebrow and gave me 'the look'.

I gave an exhasperated sigh. "Stop doing that! It's even worse than the winking!" My voice broke character as I tried to stifle a laugh.

He played an innocent look on his face, like as if he was oblivious to the situation. "Do what?"

"The 'eyebrow thing'! You know, where you move your eyebrows like this?" I imitated his signature eyebrow raise.

A grin appeared on his mischievious face. "But you like it, don't you?"

He didn't give me a chance to respond, because within a millisecond, he advanced towards me, moving his eyebrows here-and-there. My laughter only seemed to encourage him as he leaned in. Our lips were only inches apart.

"Easy there, tiger," I laughed, pushing him away. "We're just getting started."

He sat back in defeat. "Well, I still owe you that kiss."

"If I were you, I'd save it!" I laughed, throwing his shirt into his chest. "Now get changed, I want to go exploring today."

Slowly, a wide grin spread across his face. "Curiosity always got the best of you, Amber," he said, taking his shirt and slipping it on.

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