by J. M. Page
"When are we going?" Michael asked, his arm all but forgotten as he practically vibrated with the excitement of the promised excursion.
"Right now?" Peter suggested.
Wendy shrugged. "Sure, why not."
"This is great," John said. "I've seen a few things that I really want to check out and wasn't sure when we'd have the time..."
Wendy scowled. "John Adam Darling, have you been sneaking out into the city?"
John held up his hands in supplication and took a step backwards. "No, no, I've just been watching the advertisements at night..."
Peter grinned, wrapping an arm around Wendy's shoulder to walk her down the aisle toward her brothers. "Well, it's your lucky day," he said, sending a worrying grin to Wendy. "Because we're going to see it all."
Chapter Ten
Peter
As Peter led the trio of Earthlings toward the front door of the theater, he couldn't help the astonished anticipation coursing through him. He still didn't really believe he'd gotten Wendy to agree to this. One minute they were just a few decibels from a shouting match and the next they were... What? This wasn't exactly an intimate outing, not with her brothers tagging along, but was that what he even wanted?
So, yes, he'd been impressed by her moxie when she stood up to him. He liked the look of righteous indignation on her — all flushed cheeks and wild bright eyes. Passion like that was something in short supply in Neverland and seeing how passionate she was about caring for her brothers was refreshing, even if it was infuriating. He didn’t know how to make sense of someone that wasn’t a self-serving opportunist.
He was determined to prove her wrong about those boys, though. He knew they were capable of great things if only she'd loosen the reins a bit. They just needed the freedom to roam and he knew they'd excel.
In the meantime, until he could convince her, Peter was determined to spend as much time as he could with Wendy, learning her points of vulnerability for the cause.
"Are you sure Tinker Bell won't want to join us?" Wendy asked as Peter reached for the door pull.
He shook his head. "Nah, I'm sure she's still pouting."
A frown tugged at Wendy's lips and Peter wondered what for. Was she jealous of Tink? Worried about her? Female rivalries were tricky, he knew. With men, they'd fight, cause some damage, get it out of their system and be laughing like old friends the next day. Not women though. No, when they fought, it was covert warfare, subterfuge and sabotage. Masterminds, the lot of them, and if Peter knew what was good for him, he'd steer clear of any brewing disagreement between Wendy and Tink.
"Now, before we go out here," Peter said, trying to impart some authority in his voice for the boys' sake. "I should warn you—"
Wendy smirked, pushing past him. As she did, she flipped her hair over her shoulder, leveling him with her jade gaze. "Oh, come on, Peter. Live a little," she practically purred.
Peter's grip on the door pull tightened until his hand hurt from the effort and he had to suppress a shudder as her voice caressed him, her warm breath brushing the shell of his ear.
The woman was taunting him.
But that was his job!
"Suit yourself," he said with a shrug, opening the door for everyone to follow.
He stood in place on the sidewalk, breathing in the city air — smoky spices from street food carts permeated the air, mixed with fragrant perfume of tiger lilies that graced window boxes all along his street.
Peter was the last one to move, waiting for everyone else's reaction as they took their first step on the surface of Neverland. Wendy went first, not sensing anything amiss. She took one step forward, putting her foot down, and as she lifted her other foot for another step, she lifted off the ground in a floating stride.
Michael and John were already walking when they saw their sister float up a few feet before she drifted back down.
"It's bouncy!" Michael exclaimed, pushing off hard to get higher off the ground.
"Michael, be careful!" Wendy said, bouncing five feet as she tried to hurry back to him.
Her eyes went wide and she reached out for something to grab onto, her hand coming away empty as she coasted back to the ground, her feet drifting down to kiss the pavement.
"What—?" she asked, giving Peter an accusatory look.
He shrugged, his hands in his pockets, grinning madly. "I tried to warn you, but you didn't want to listen. Neverland has much less gravity than your home world."
John paced back and forth, great loping steps that sent him nearly over their heads. "How is that? The planet is larger than ours."
Peter shrugged again. "It's less dense, but the city isn't on the surface, either. We're in the uppermost part of the atmosphere. Most buildings have grav pumps to make life a bit easier."
"Whatever the reason, it's awesome!" Michael said. "Look! I can fly!"
"Oh god, I can't watch," Wendy said, turning away and covering her face as her brother pushed off the ground hard.
Peter's shoulders were shaking with laughter as he met up with her and put an arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry, he's not going to float away," he said, rubbing her upper arm absently.
Wendy parted her fingers, peeking through them at him. "Promise?"
He sucked in a breath and tried to steady his frantic heartbeat. The way she looked right now — not angry or know-it-all or bossy, just pure and innocent, her voice soft and meek — it did things to him and made him feel guilty for being such a jerk to her the past few days. "Promise," he said, placing his hand over his heart. "They're perfectly safe with me, I tried to tell you that," he added, instantly regretting the chiding tone he heard in his own voice.
Wendy pursed her lips, pulling away from his arm, hugging herself as she gingerly walked forward. "Tell that to that nasty burn on Michael's arm," she said bitterly. She didn't even sound angry anymore, just resigned as she watched her twin brothers skip and hop down the street ahead of them.
Peter sighed. "He's alright though, no permanent damage." He didn't want her to think of him as careless or callous, though why he cared about her opinion of him, he couldn't say.
Wendy made a face, but eventually nodded. "You're right. I guess it's time for me to take a bit of a step back. It's just hard after..." She trailed off, hugging herself tighter. "Just after all we've been through."
Peter nodded. "I understand you care about them a lot," he said. He didn't remember the feeling, but he understood how strong it was in her and he knew he’d felt it before, too.
"I do. But as you like to remind me, they're not little boys," she said with a hint of wistfulness in her voice. This was not going at all how Peter had hoped. He wanted to see her letting go, laughing and smiling, a childlike spark of wonder lit in the depths of her eyes. He wanted to see what Wendy looked like when she let her hair down and had a little fun, but instead he was reminding her how her brothers didn't need her and her presence was superfluous.
Smooth.
After a stretch of silence, Wendy seemed to pull herself out of it and visibly brightened in her demeanor. "I believe you owe me a tour?" she asked with an eyebrow quirked.
Peter grinned, tension melting from him. "Right! Well, this is the Old District. Not as glitzy or glamorous as the main strip, but it has its own charm, I guess."
"It's weird how much things look like home. I mean, other than the bouncing and the giant gold streak across the sky," she said, craning her neck upwards to look at the ring. As she tilted her head back, she took a step without thinking and bounced — higher than she expected, if her yelp was anything to go by. She reached out, grasping at a light pole, but Peter snagged her hand instead, pulling her down to him.
"Why don't you just hold onto me to keep from flying away?" he said, lacing his fingers with hers.
Wendy turned a shade of pink he hadn't seen on her, flushing all the way to her hairline. "I thought you said I couldn't fly away?"
Busted.
He flashed her a grin and squeezed her f
ingers in his. "Let's not take any chances, eh?"
If it was possible, her flush spread even further and she looked down at her feet with a little smirk on her lips.
They strolled down the sidewalk, eventually catching up to the boys, and Peter pointed out landmarks, buildings that weren't there, regaling the tales of shows that had left the town long ago.
He found himself getting a little nostalgic, his voice turning wistful as they neared the end of the street and turned onto another — this one headed straight for the glitz and glam of new Neverland. Hook's territory.
"It seems like Neverland changes a lot," Wendy said, eying the new construction right next to an ongoing demolition.
Peter nodded with a sigh. "Change is part of the culture here, but there are some that want to pave over everything old and make it shiny and new."
"What's wrong with that?" she asked, innocently curious, their hands still joined together.
"Well, nothing, I guess. If you don't mind stripping the place of all its history and character, destroying what makes it so special," he said.
Wendy pursed her lips before they curved into a little smile, her eyes locking on his. "Let me guess, you're in favor of keeping Neverland weird?"
Peter chuckled, hearing it put that way, but nodded. "You bet I am. I love Neverland. I love it just the way it is — eclectic, unique, and... yeah, weird. I don't need flashy neon and glittering towers. I wouldn't want to see it changed for anything." He paused, looking back over his shoulder to the old part of town before looking ahead to the part that was everything he despised. "Especially not into some corporatized cookie-cutter playground for wealthy bureaucrats and government officials." The thought alone was enough to make him feel sick. But that was exactly what Hook wanted to do. With his chain of sprawling resorts and venues quickly snapping up any available land. Every time another show from the old times went under, Hook was right there to swoop in with his team of developers.
Peter wouldn't let his show be the next one on the chopping block. Couldn't.
"So what are you going to do about it?" Wendy asked, her head tilted to the side, her sun-kissed cinnamon hair falling away to reveal the creamy slope of her neck. He wanted to kiss her there, see if she shivered or moaned.
It took him a minute to actually process what she'd said.
"Do?" he repeated, the wheels in his head turning. He'd never considered doing anything to stop Hook, other than keeping his own show afloat. Theirs was one of the few left in Peter's part of town, and if he failed, it would only be days before Hook razed the whole block for another mega-casino.
Wendy nodded, the light catching in her hair, nearly entrancing him. How did she look at him so pointedly, like she saw right through to the very core of him? It was unnerving, but he couldn't seem to distance himself from her.
"I may not have known you for very long," she said, her eyes drifting toward her brothers walking ahead of them. "But I don't expect you to be a man to take things lying down. Especially not things that matter to you. You don't strike me as the type to suffer in silence without fighting back."
Peter stroked his chin thoughtfully, mulling over the new ideas she'd given him.
"I guess I hadn't really thought past saving my show to keep the theater," he said. "But now that you mention it, perhaps a more direct approach would work better."
Wendy tilted her head to the side, her eyes going wide as she stepped a little too firmly and bounced a few feet off the pavement.
"What do you mean, keep the theater? Is it in danger?" A little frown pulled at the corners of her mouth and Peter thought briefly about pressing his lips to hers, just to see her smile again. It wasn't something she seemed accustomed to doing very often.
Peter sighed, nodding finally, not sure if he really wanted to let her in that deep. "It's a long story."
Chapter Eleven
Wendy
The boys were still a handful of paces ahead of them, babbling about this, that, or the other thing, pointing and yammering on in their own unique twin way. Meanwhile, Peter's hand was wrapped around hers, sending a strange tingling up her arm and into her chest where it made her heart beat faster. She sucked in a breath, feeling desperate for air, and licked her lips thoughtfully.
"So? Why don't you tell me about it?" she prompted. She didn't want to think about him losing the theater. She could tell what it meant to him, but also, she thought about the exquisite details and special touches that would be lost forever if they bulldozed the whole place. Her stomach turned at the thought. She didn't want to see that beautiful old building destroyed — sure, it could use some refurbishing, maybe some spring cleaning, but there was no replacement for that kind of history and craftsmanship.
Peter's shoulders slumped and for the first time, Wendy saw the signs of stress in the faint purple under his eyes, the wrinkles pushing his brow down. He looked tired. Like he'd lost the will to fight but was still going through the motions because he didn't know what else to do.
Or was she projecting?
"Well, it all started a few months ago. One performer went missing — not all that unusual on Neverland. People are always disappearing to other corners of the city never to be seen again, or they decide they've had enough of the good life and go home. We weren't too concerned until it happened a few more times. Tink's always been the headliner, you see, but without the other acts, she couldn't carry the whole show. People were leaving unsatisfied, demanding their money back, complaining about the lack of variety." He sighed. "It's a cutthroat business we're in. One little mistake is enough to ruin a show, but we'd made a colossal one. And without the talent to fill out the program, we decided to shut down for a while."
Wendy frowned, looking down at her feet. It sounded to her like Neverland was not as carefree as Peter claimed. He still had plenty of worries to contend with and they clearly weighed on him. She looked back at the sidewalk in front of them, spotting the twins roughhousing in the street.
"So that's why you needed my brothers, to save the show," she said. A statement, not a question.
Peter stiffened next to her, his hand turning to marble in her grip. "Your brothers want to be here as much as I want them here," he said, his voice hardened. "People come to Neverland because their life at home isn't what they wanted it to be and they hope for more. It's not me you should point fingers at, love."
Wendy let her hand fall from his, quietly stewing over what he'd said. How could the boys' life not be what they wanted? She worked so hard to get them through school, to get them applying to colleges, to save enough to pay their way. How could they turn their backs on all of that? She wanted the best future she could provide for them, but they seemed to have other ideas.
And the fact that Peter couldn't resist rubbing it in at every opportunity only made things worse. For a moment, while they walked and talked, she thought she saw something in him. A breath of humility, a glimmer of something that made her want to join his cause and help in any way she could. But just as quickly as it flared up, it fizzled out. She had her reasons for being so worried about the twins and she didn't appreciate him questioning her efficacy as a parent.
"Peter!" Michael called, a big grin splitting his face as the twins both stopped and turned, waiting for them to catch up.
Wendy was suddenly very glad she wasn't holding his hand anymore. Even if it did mean she had to bounce like she was walking on a trampoline.
"What's up?" Peter asked, all traces of their quiet dispute gone from his expression.
"We wanna see another show," Michael said. "Can we?"
John nodded. "It seems like it would be beneficial to our understanding of what the show should entail."
Peter had looked thoughtful for a moment, but after John spoke, he split into a huge smile. "I know just the place. They'll show you exactly what a good act should... entail," he said, snickering to himself though the rest of them all looked at him with confusion.
He realized no one was laughing wi
th him and rolled his eyes. "You're going to think that's hilarious in a minute," he said. "Come on."
This time, as they walked down the streets of Neverland, Peter walked shoulder to shoulder with the boys, all three of them leaving Wendy to trail behind. It was nothing she wasn't already used to. The twins were always off in their own world forgetting about her, but it stung a little more coming from Peter, though she couldn't say why.
He led the way through winding alleys and a dizzying amount of turns until Wendy was completely lost, knowing she'd never be able to find her way back to the theater without him.
He turned a last corner, and Wendy gasped — sure this was where they were going. Peter pointed and said something to the boys that she couldn't hear, but she was too distracted to try to eavesdrop anyway. The place was magnificent. Rising from the brick and stone facades of other buildings, there was a towering structure that looked remarkably like a sand castle — only a more intricately detailed sand castle than she ever thought possible. Skinny turrets rose up, wrapped in elegant spirals of columns. There was a moat, too, fed by a waterfall from the window under one of the sky-scraping spires, and a drawbridge to complete the package.
The whole thing looked like it had been plucked from the depths of Atlantis and dropped on Neverland.
"This is where you're taking us?" Wendy asked, catching up to the group as the boys paused outside to gape at the glorious structure.
"Yep," was all Peter said in response. Why did things suddenly feel chilly between them again? Why could they not talk to each other without ruffling one another's feathers?
"Well come on!" Michael said, racing across the drawbridge in his excitement.
Wendy found herself smiling at her brother's happiness. They really did seem to be enjoying themselves here, but that couldn't last forever. Neverland was a vacation spot, not a permanent residence. Surely they knew that.
John and Peter followed across the bridge, Wendy bringing up the rear. Peter paused, waiting for her to cross.
