Lea's Perspective:
For the first minute or two, Pan just sat staring down at his hands with a blank look on his face. His eyes however, looked glassy and pure like I've never seen them before. And dare I say it, he had quite astonishing eyes. They were a vibrant green with hidden yellow tones. For the first time, I was seeing Pan without a scowl or a smirk on his face, just a blank stare. At first I was a little freaked out just sitting there. From what I'm getting from this, he led me deep into the woods so I could just stare at him? I wanted to move along the "conversation", but I didn't quite know how. Suddenly, I saw Pan deeply exhale. I felt slightly tense, not really sure what the hell was going on.
"I was wrong..." he choked not even moving a muscle.
What he said made me flinch on the inside. What the hell was he talking about? Is this some kind of trick?
"What?" I asked bluntly. Unsure of his motives, I stood guard.
"...I was wrong about you..." he spoke.
"...What do you mean 'wrong about me? Remember, you made it quite clear, I'm that weak unloved orphan..."
Pan flinched at my comment. I gotta give it to him, he's a good actor.
"Listen, whatever you're trying to do, it's not gonna-"
"Lea" Pan sighed as he cut me off.
Pan turned his head to look at me. His eyes were red and looked watery.
"There's a lot you don't know...A lot I can't tell you...for your safety..."
At this point I was so confused I became full of rage. My "safety"? That "safety" consists of nearly knocking me unconscious in the middle of a forrest?
"Why the hell would you care? All you care about is getting rid of me and bossing around those boys like they're your slaves. The stories I've heard about the trouble and dangers you've put them through makes my blood boil. Felix is physically and emotionally scarred, Jake is being hunted by Hook and his drunk excuses for pirates, and Gail has been banished somewhere all alone. And what are you doing about all of this? Nothing. You think I'm going to sit here listening to you feed me lies to make you seem like a good guy, as if you had some kind of good reason to explain everything that's happened to me? Admit it, you want me dead. All these secrets, all this sneaking around, I don't expect to know everything that's going on but I damn well expect and deserve some answers."
I was so amped up at this point that I wasn't paying attention to Pan for a few moments while I had ranted. I sat there staring at the ground below me trying to blow off steam as I waited to hear some sort of snarky response from Pan, except, there wasn't one. As I turned my head to shoot Pan a death glare, a salty, translucent tear had streamed down his face from his left eye.
"...It's not what you think-" he choked.
Pan sniffled as he wiped the tear from his cheek. Did I just make Pan cry? His breathing was unsteady as he started to speak.
"-I didn't w-want t-to hurt y-you..." he stuttered.
I noticed Pan had frozen for a moment, he looked zoned out in a way.
Pan's Perspective:
*Pan's Flashback To The Race*
"Oh come on, we all know nobody can beat me, especially a girl".
Lea didn't say anything.
"A girl that's alone...forgotten...unloved"
"Tell me, why didn't anyone want you? Was it because you were too much trouble to handle? I mean really, who could love someone who's so weak?"
"I'm not weak..." she mumbled.
"Oh but you are. Why do you not see any other girls here? Because you're just like them, you're not strong enough to be here. You were sent here by mistake. And in a half hour, you have a one way ticket out of here, back to where you came from, where you can be a useless waste of space in someone else's home. You may as well not waste your life forgotten and just end it now" I chuckled.
"Then why are you here?" she spat.
"Excuse me?"
"This is a home for those that are lost and unloved, so why are you here? If you're so much better than everyone?"
"Because I am the best thing that has ever happened to these boys. Without me, they'd be suffering somewhere horrible."
"...they still suffer" she muttered under her breath.
I tried to stay focused in order to not let was Lea said affect me. It was a rough topic to talk about, so I pretended I didn't hear her.
"Besides" I started again, "none of the Lost Boys would accept you anyway."
"Then why did you save me? Why not have let me die?" she interrogated.
I turned to face her for a split second.
"So I could have the pleasure of doing it myself" I snickered painfully.
The horn sounded and almost without delay Lea took her first step off when I threw my right forearm in front of her throat. She ran into it with a great deal of force and fell back to the ground where the wind was knocked out of her. She layed on the ground choking from a lack of oxygen. Stay in character... I laughed mischievously and stopped for a split second.
"See you at the finish line, weakling" I chuckled.
I ran forward and didn't look back; I couldn't. After a few minutes of running I had to stop. My hands and my forehead got clammy and sweaty, I couldn't breath. I was having an anxiety attack; the first one in a while. I used to have them often as a child, I thought I had grown out of it for a while until they started occurring again. Trying to steady my breathing, thoughts raced through my head. A nasty bruise had started to form on my forearm. Shivers ran down my spine as I thought:
"What if I just killed her?"
*End of flashback*
Lea's Perspective:
More small tears rushed down Pan's cheeks making them red. He sniffled again and got back under control.
"I didn't have a choice..." he stated.
I sat there listening, eager to understand what Pan was rambling on about.
"Neverland isn't a safe place anymore, it's a living hell...they're after us; all of us. I figured if I found a way to get you to leave you would, but I could tell it wasn't going to work, so..."
"You tried to get me to want to leave willingly..." I spoke aloud. I looked at Pan to see him turn his head toward me and nod without a single word.
"If what you're saying is true, then why the act? Why do you act like a dictator? The Lost Boys fear you. They're too afraid to come to you with their problems cause they think you'll cut their hand off." I interrogated.
Pan bit his lip and shook his head.
"Because-" he frowned.
"-if I don't, they won't be careful. I can't bare watching any of them get hurt..."
I can't believe it...Pan has a soul... At first, I thought there was no possibility of him being genuine like this, but the more and more I watched him, there's no way he could be this believable.
"I just want things right..." he said with a raspy voice.
I faced back towards the ground looking at my black converse. The ground felt cold as the twigs on the ground crunched underneath my feet. The air fell silent until I had a thought.
"You know I'm not leaving..." I spoke.
Pan hesitated for a moment.
"Yeah...I figured" he chuckled slightly.
I chuckled in response. Wow, for once Pan isn't making me want to slap a smartass grin off his face.
"You know, I've been thinking...Tommy...he misses his parents. He has a home he can go to, and I just don't think he really belongs here..."
Pan looked back down at the ground.
"Yeah, I know...but I can't take him back..."
My face grew confused and I felt a little angry.
"Why the hell not?" I asked concerned.
"...It's stupid...there's no point" Pan tried.
I turned to Pan again and made him look at me.
"Look, I'm pretty sure whatever it is, it doesn't really matter. I thought you wanted what was best for these boys."
"I do. It's just..."
Pan stopped. The wind blew through the air and the leaves on the trees rustled disturbing the silence.
"...I've forgotten how to fly..."
"W-what?"
"I can't fly anymore Lea. My happy thought...it's gone..."
I sat in awe. THE Peter Pan doesn't have a happy thought. What kind of world do we live in?
"You have to have some kind of happy thought, it can be anything can't it?" I asked confused.
"It just doesn't work like that unfortunately. The only thing flying in Neverland now is my shadow and any remaining fairies. There aren't many left ever since Hook has been hunting them for god knows what."
A thought hit me like a bus.
"...What if I go?" I suggested.
"What? There's no way, you'd never be able to get Tommy home, let alone get yourself back here, if that's even what you really want" Pan explained.
"Second star to the right and straight on till morning" I said looking Pan in the eyes.
Pan smiled and laughed.
"Well someone seems to be an expert" He joked.
"Just let me take him back, I'll be fine" I assured him.
"You are quite gutsy you know that?"
"Of course, how else did I beat you in the duel?" I laughed.
Pan gave me a sinister look and started cracking up.
"Oh my god. You let me win" I realized feeling incredibly stupid.
Pan laughed.
"I wouldn't put it like that, I'd call it leveling the playing field. You have potential, you just need the right training" he suggested.
"What exactly are you implying?" I wondered aloud.
"How about this, I let you take Tommy home, and in return, you let me train you. I need stronger fighters like you" Pan spoke.
I looked at Pan curiously.
"Alright, it's a deal"
"You know Pan, I was beginning to wonder if-"
"Peter" he interrupted.
"...what?"
"I like being called Peter...it is my name..." he pointed out.
Pan threw me off guard. It's like finding out the villain in a storybook is actually not exactly what he's made out to be.
"Okay Peter, at first I was beginning to wonder if you were gonna throw me to some crocodiles if I didn't stop talking back to you" I laughed aloud.
"Nah, I would've thrown you to the mermaids"
I gave Peter an 'are you for real' look.
"Kidding" Pan chuckled.
We sat a little longer until we realized how late it was.
"We should probably head back" he continued.
Peter stood up and I followed. A full moon could be seen from all corners of Neverland. It was quite a sight. As we walked back Peter and I talked a little about some of the things he had done to Hook, and there were a LOT. And obviously there's the part about him cutting off Hook's hand and feeding it to a crocodile no less. It was late at night when we walked back into camp with almost all of the boys asleep except for a few.
"Come to my hut in the morning, I'll get you what you need to take Tommy home" Peter said.
"Thank you Peter" I smiled.
Peter smiled back and we parted ways when I started to walk to my hut. I yawned in exhaustion wondering what other surprises there would be in Neverland for me to discover. I opened the door to my hut to see it the way I left it. It was still quite cozy. Closing the door, I started walking over to my vanity when I noticed the curtains to my window were still wide open. Grabbing the curtains, I began drawing them closed when in the hut next to me I saw Jake. What was he still doing up? I stopped the curtain where it was and couldn't help but peek. Thinking about him made me smile to myself, leaving me daydreaming. I zoned back in when I noticed Jake reach down at the bottom of his shirt and pull it of his body leaving him shirtless. Panicked, I quickly closed the curtain leaving it a crack open. Feeling ashamed, I couldn't help myself. I peeked through the small crack between the curtains and felt like a stalker. It was like one of those things where you know it's wrong, but you can't look away. I never would have guessed Jake for being muscular, but damn did I underestimate him. I shook my head and closed the curtain for the final time and literally jumped into bed. Just seeing Jake reminded me of his locket that I was wearing. I took it off my neck and clutched it in my hand. I blew out the candle illuminating the hut and fell asleep with the happiest of thoughts.
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Ok so first let me start off, I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES. This chapter was long overdue and it shouldn't have taken me a whole month to write it. I promise more updates (within a reasonable amount of time) are coming and I thank you for sticking with me even through my busy schedule. So I gonna take a guess and figure that those of you that didn't like Pan being a big jerk are pretty pleased with Lea's discovery. Yay good Peter! I thank you all for reading and I'll see you in the next update! :)
-Agm<3