After a long hike back to camp, Y/N and the Lost Boys were all tired and hungry. They had spent the day playing Hide and Find Me, to give Y/N the chance to practice with her new cloak. She learned Devin really wasn't very good at hiding, but he was enthusiastic to be sure.
The group ate ravenously that night, laughing and talking through full mouths. They sang rowdy songs and played at throwing sticks into the ground or small stones for distance as the sun went down. They built a fire and sat around it, and the camp felt like a home. There was a familiarity in the jokes repeated and the stories everyone seemed to know before they were told.
The mood in the camp quieted down to watching the flames dance and repeat themselves. Y/N felt restlessly safe and warm in that place, surrounded by the Lost Boys and wrapped in her cloak marking her as one of them. "Now what?" She whispered to Devin.
"That depends on what Peter says," he whispered back. Then, hopefully, he asked Peter, "Would you play your pipe for us?"
Everyone looked at the green clad boy, quiet on his stone, watching the fire. They were silent studying his face. He smiled and the silence was broken by a cheer.
Peter began to play and the boys danced, whooping and flipping around the fire to the sound of the pipe. Their stomping feet were like the beat of a drum, insisting its rhythm into her heartbeat. Y/N cheered and danced along.
She made her way around the fire twice, just one body in the throng before she caught sight of Devin. He was watching the group from a safe distance. He danced with a look of boyish delight on his face. She smiled and offered a hand to him, "Would you like to dance Devin?"
He looked surprised before his ears turned red. He looked down and traced circles in the dirt with his foot.
She rolled her eyes, grabbing his arm and laughing, "C'mon"
She pulled him back into the circle of lost boys. She held his hands and spun him around. He tried to copy the action but his arms weren't long enough to go over her head. Another boy took her hand before she fell backwards. She looked up to see Owen, one of the boys she'd met during her rest day.
"Allow me," he said, smiling down at Devin.
Devin went back to spinning and bouncing to the beat of his own drum and Y/N danced with Owen for a moment.
He smiled as another boy tapped her shoulder and bowed low. "Your majesty," he said to his toes. When he came up grinning, Y/N saw it was Rufio.
She continued like this for a while switching between boys and surprising herself by remembering their names. She laughed and tumbled, twirled and skipped. They made a tunnel out of their arms, taking turns running through and adding themselves to the end.
It was not the same as the dance on the boat. On the boat Y/N was a young lady dancing with grown men. Here she was just a lost girl, enjoying the music and having fun with her new friends.
She learned all kinds of new things, even finding herself bold enough to attempt a flip, like the ones Felix and Ian did. She leapt from one of the logs they used as seating around the fire, tucked and flipped forward. Her feet hit the ground with a thud before the sand shifted and they slipped out from under her. She landed on her back laughing and gasping.
Ian offered her a hand and pulled her back to her feet. Out of her peripheral vision she could see Peter, still seated and playing his pipe. He was watching her curiously, his eyes catching the firelight.
She dusted herself off and walked to him, offering a hand the same way she had with Devin. "Come dance with me."
"Can't," he shrugged," Who would play the music?"
She put her hands on her hips, head tilted to one side. "You can fly Peter Pan. I'm sure you can find a way to play the music and dance for a bit."
He shook his head, "I told you, I can't. I don't know how to dance."
"And I can fix that. If I can fight you can dance." She offered her hand to him again. He eyed it like a nervous animal, "C'mon Pan, let's play."
Dramatically, he sighed and took the hand. She laughed triumphantly and pulled him into the throng.
The music started again, slower now, it seemed to come from everywhere at once and Pan fought against a smile. Y/N was too focused to notice. She guided one of his hands to her lower back and held the other, just the way her dad had taught her. She felt her throat tighten at the memory with a feeling that meant she could cry if she wanted to. She shook her head and laughed to trick away the sensation of sadness.
Y/N woke up slowly to see soft light filtering through the trees above her. She could hear waves crashing, birds chirping, and boys sighing in their sleep, but no music. She looked over to Peter's seat by the fire, hoping to see him awake and thinking, but all she saw were his pipes resting on the stone.
She sat up quickly, suddenly very awake. She stumbled off her bed roll, a sinking feeling gathering in her gut. "Peter?" She shook Felix awake. "Felix, wake up. Peter is gone."
"What do you mean gone?" He grumbled with sleepy incredulity.
"I mean he's not here anymore!" She looked around her to the boys now stirring. "Does anyone know where he is?"
"No, he should be here. He's always here when we wake up."
"Then he could be in danger. We have to find him."
Felix stood and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Right, I need people with me to check the trail and the cave. Ian, take a few boys and check the watch posts, make sure he isn't just up a tree somewhere. Owen, check the cliffs and have someone with you watching the sky. If he's on his way back he'll be flying." The boys nodded and split off in groups.
The walk back to camp was long. Peter was heavier than Y/N and too tired to help much. He stumbled once and boys reached out to steady him but Y/N waved them off. This was her mess and she wasn't about to let go of her friend.
"You know," she grunted, "this would be a lot easier if I could fly."
He chuckled, quiet and low. "Yeah, maybe that's not such a bad idea after all."
By the time they were safely back at camp, Peter had given up on speaking. He focused his energy on putting one foot in front of the other.
"You made it Peter," Y/N whispered, "we're home." He was swaying and trembling. "Here you need to lay down." Her mat was closest and she eased him down.
"Is Peter okay?" Devin asked in a tentative whisper.
"Peter is going to be fine. I'm taking extra good care of him." She ruffled the smaller boy's hair. He gave a small nod, still looking nervously at Peter. She did her best to distract him. "Why don't you and the other boys go play Hide and Find Me for a while? You'll need the practice if you want to stand a chance at beating me later."
She punched him lightly on the arm and he seemed to cheer up. He and a few smallish boys ran off in search of good hiding places.
Y/N turned back to see Peter struggling to his feet. "What are you doing?"
"I already told you," he panted, "I don't need sleep." His knees buckled under him.
She caught him and eased him back down. "Maybe not but you do need rest. You took quite the beating."
"No I don't, it's just—it's not working." He was staring at his hands.
She sat next to him. "What's not working?"
He looked at her with real fear in his eyes. "The magic. Whenever any of us get hurt I channel the magic of the island and I fix it, but I'm not strong enough to make it work now." He looked back down at his hands. "It's supposed to work. I have to fix it."
"Relax," she whispered, brushing the hair out of his eyes again. "You'll be okay. Rest now." She took her cloak and wrapped it around him; his was nowhere to be seen. It had likely been lost when he was taken.
He stiffened at her touch at first but stopped shaking as badly. Slowly, gently, she wrapped her arms around him. He stopped resisting, and melted into the embrace. She hummed the tune he had played the night she'd almost drowned, holding him tightly until he was asleep in her arms.
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net