Hey,
Thanks for reading, and I'm really sorry about the wait, it took me a little longer to finish than I anticipated.
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Enjoy,
Annabelle_the_reader
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'Hey, Tiger Lily, you wanna wrestle?' Peter called, running up to me with a big grin on his mischievous face. Despite being a girl, I enjoyed the boyish ways of the Lost Boys and I loved to wrestle with them during training, particularly Peter Pan. Only when I wrestled with Peter, he usually celebrated his victory by kissing me as I was trapped underneath him.
'Sure, bring it, Pannie.' I teased, using the competitive nickname he hated and handing Jack the wood he had me fetch from the forest. It was annoying me that Jack was still under the false impression that I couldn't fend for myself like the other Lost Boys could, even though I was just as brave and strong as they were, and sometimes braver and stronger.
Jack laughed and immediately called the other Lost Boys working around him to watch us wrestle together. Everyone cheered and followed me and Peter, eager to see how well we could battle it out.
'Okay, here's how it'll work.' Peter declared, standing before me with his hands on his hips, showing me that he was serious about this game, as he always was with competitive sports. 'Best out of three. If I pin you down for five seconds then the match is mine.'
'Deal.' I said excited, folding my arms in front of my chest in a similar fashion to him.
Before Peter Pan even had time to react, I hurtled forwards and smashed him to the grounds lying on top of him and smirking in triumph. Peter, unable to move by laughing, struggled underneath me for a moment. I teasingly brought myself towards his lips, leaning in to kiss him, but just before they touched, I pulled away, giggling at how much I was teasing him.
Peter pouted and thrust his body upwards, pushing me out of the way in triumph. It was around thirty seconds of me dodging him, until Peter managed to lunge at me enough to knock me down completely, pining me beneath him.
Laughing, Peter brought his lips to my cheek and kissed me. 'Peter...' I whined, giggling and twisting my head to teasingly try and dodge more kisses. Peter just laughed harder and brought his lips to my nose, forehead, neck and finally lips.
I barely heard the Lost Boys counting until Peter arrogantly smirked and got up, giving his hand to me in order to help me to my feet.
'One for Peter, zero for Tiger Lily.' Felix announced loudly and I gave Peter the biggest death glare I could manage without bursting into fits of laughter, pretending to be angry with him and blame him for my defeat. Laughing, Felix put his hands up to mock me and stepped out of my way, joking that he didn't want to wrestle with me if I was that terrifying.
'Peter!' I whined and shrugged, pretending to give up. Peter laughed, completely falling for it, much to my shock. When he took a step forward to console me, I surprise tackled him and knocked him to the ground, holding him down for just enough time for me to win that match.
'One all!' Felix announced and the Lost Boys crept a little closer, eager to see what would happen. My eyes met Peter's mischievously, delighting in the fact that I wouldn't lose too badly to him. Yet Peter wouldn't fall for the same trick again and I was almost certain that Peter would now be more motivated to win after I humiliated him, but I still had fun.
As I expected, it took less than three millisecond for Peter to tackle me, wrapping his arms around my petite waist and dragging me to the ground, holding me down and laughing as I squirmed beneath him.
'I win!' Peter cheered and the Lost Boys whooped along with him as he did a mock victory dance just to spite me. I took Peter's outstretched hand and rose to me feet, a bit of a sore looser. Peter smashed his lips to my own and we shared a passionate, yet very quick kiss. Peter pulled away, grinning, and said, 'Celebratory kiss, Tig.'
'Whatever.' I rolled my eyes theatrically.
'I think that I should get a prize for winning, don't you?' Peter suggested, winking at me excitedly. I laughed, rather irritated by his enthusiasm and arrogance at winning a game inevitably.
'You already had your celebratory kiss, haven't you?' I reminded him spitefully, linking ny fingers through his and giving his hands a small squeeze.
'I know.' Peter smiled happily. 'I'm so lucky to have you and I care about you so much I would most certainly call that a reward in itself.'
'Maybe if you meet me in the woods after supper I'll give you another celebratory kiss.' I teased and laughing, I flicked my hair over my shoulder and skipped out of the way, heading back towards the fire to start making dinner.
~
'I'm surprised you're so eager...' Felix said, trailing off to annoy me by leaving me guessing. Felix understood Pan more than I ever could. I knew a side of him that he never let anyone see, Malcolm, while Felix only knew the side that everyone sees, Peter Pan.
My eyes narrowed as I glanced at Felix. There was a small smirk tugging at his lips, a smile that knew I was inquisitive over what he was saying. 'What do you mean?'
'Haven't you heard?' Felix asked gleefully, like I was a fish that had taken the bait, 'Pan needs you to uncover the prophecy which will save his life. I told you last time that he needs you to love him for that, didn't I?'
'So?' I demanded impatiently.
Felix kept his eyes trained on the food in front of him, trying not to look at me. Part of me suspected that Pan has urged Felix to say some of these things. But a bigger part of me thought that although Felix would never go against what Pan said, he could still create his own rules for his own game.
'So... Once you fall in love with Pan and Pan falls in love with you, then you will be able to uncover the prophecy, which you will. And the prophecy can-'
'-I get that bit!' I snapped impatiently. 'Why should I delay it?'
Felix chuckled to himself and finally, his gaze met my own, 'And then what happens, hm?'
Slowly, almost mechanically, I explained, 'We locate the owner of the heart of the truest believer. We found out who they are and where they come from. We figure out a way to take them to Neverland. Pan creates a plan to persuade them to give him their heart.'
Felix's gaze didn't leave me as he demanded once again, 'And where do you fit into this equation, Tiger Lily?'
'What do you mean?' I mumbled.
'What use are you to Pan?' He asked, looking back down at his food,but occasionally stealing glances to understand my reaction. 'When you find the owner of the heart of the truest believer, what happens to you? Pan doesn't carry dead weight.'
'I'm not dead weight.' I said firmly, causing a few Lost Boys to glance in our direction. 'Anyway, if I find the owner of the heart of the truest believer, then it would be because Pan loves me. If Pan loves me, he wouldn't just dispose of me like that.'
'You must be careful, Tiger Lily...' Felix hissed, 'Your desires are what can ruin you the most.'
'Why do you keep helping me? It's confusing!' I exclaimed, demanding to know answers that Felix would never be willing to give.
I learnt the hard way to expect the unexpected. Some of my worst enemies have aided me, and some of my closest friends had been plotting my downfall.
'Just being helpful and reminding you what happened when you left for Neverland from Earth.' Felix smiled maliciously.
'And what's that?' I demanded.
Felix chuckled, dropped the knife and turned to face me completely this time, his grin widening, 'Welcome to your life, Tiger Lily. There's no turning back.'
'I can escape.' I countered.
Pan laughed from behind. I spun around rather angrily. It was very annoying that he seemed to always be everywhere. 'Even while we sleep we will find you.'
It seems that everyone, Lost Boy or Lost Girl is like the bright moon, we all have our darker side. Only some people's darker sides are larger than other's.
Quickly, I turned around sharply, glaring at Pan and started back towards Felix, who was beginning to wander away again.
'Hey, Felix!' I said gleefully ambling towards him by the fire. As Peter's ex-wife and whatever-you-could-call-us-now, I had decided to try and befriend his second-in-command and best friend Felix. I knew very little about the animals he was dissecting and trying to make look edible enough for human consumption, but I decided to keep an open mind and not vomit all of the Lost Boy's dinner from the stomach churning feeling of how nauseated and squeamish I was being.
'Hey, Tiger.' He grinned back cheerfully. No matter how protective of his preparation of dinner and food Felix was, he always appreciated an extra pair of hands around the kitchen. 'Can you help with the vegetables for lunch? You just need to chop 'em up really for the stew.'
'Sounds great,' I said as convincingly as possible and nodded as enthusiastically as I could muster. I began to amble over to begin preparing the vegetables. I was a horrendous liar, but I had said this lie so many times I had gotten used to saying it by now.
It was one the first times that I had spoken to Felix without the other Lost Boys or Pan eavesdropping, so I was especially pleased that he didn't look like he wanted to whack me over the head with his club. 'How's you and Pan?'
I ignored his suggestive wink and laughed. 'Great, actually, I really like him.' I said, not friends with him enough to report my true feelings, but it didn't matter because we trusted each other. 'I mean, it's a little weird that he doesn't look like Malcolm anymore and he's changed so much, but so have I, so it doesn't seem to bad. He just looks a bit more like the boy I fell in love with when I lived in Neverland with the natives.'
'I can see he loves you.' Felix observed, stabbing at the meat and ripping apart its flesh, making my stomach churn.
'Oh really?' I scoffed. Felix returned to his chopping, but his slices were more methodical and slow. I paused to think things through before replying, as if thinking of the best way to phrase things. 'I'm sorry to snap, it's just sometimes I doubt. Sometimes I wonder where he was when everything was falling apart. He just seems to find me cold, lost and insecure, a little too late. He finds me after everything is finished, so he can pick up the pieces, but not hold me close enough to protect me from smashing.'
'And it is for that very reason I know you love him too!' Felix smiled knowingly and I glanced up at him from my slicing in confusion. He sighed, putting down his knife as I continued to chop the vegetables methodically, trying to not slice of my fingers with them. 'You wouldn't have complained if you didn't love him back. You love him beneath it all, don't you?'
'Yes.' I shrugged and Felix beamed triumphantly at his own intellect. 'He's the only person who has ever known who I really am and who I'm not and who I was and who I want to be. I love him so much it hurts, Felix, he's hurting me.'
'You guys are perfect for each other, your personalities combine to make one perfect person. It's cute.' Felix said eventually, picking up his knife again and brutally slicing the meat in anger, making the slices spin off of the chopping board, before tossing them into the cooking pot.
I valued my unconventional friendship with Felix. We were the kind of friends that could cook there for hours without saying anything, but leave feeling like everything had been solved and we had had the deepest, most open conversation ever to have been conversed.