Remember the Rules

Rule #5: Stay Away From Felix

Stay away from Felix, Pan's right hand. He's a ruthless boy, and one that you don't want to associate with. Hopefully you're smart enough to realize that.

As soon as the water passed my lips, I felt a rush of energy unlike anything I'd ever felt. I looked down and the cuts and scratches were gone, like they'd never even been there. Even the bruises and cuts from my fight with Felix and the mountain lion were gone.

"I probably should have mentioned this before," Pan said, smirking, "But anyone who drinks this water is forever confined to the island."

That probably would have been important... had I been planning to leave. Still, I was curious. "Why is that, exactly?"

"Its waters draw their power from Neverland itself. Once you leave the island, they stop working and their effects vanish," Felix said. "And since the people who drink from this spring are always badly injured or poisoned, they die."

I rolled my eyes, but instead of one of my usual biting resposes, I just said, "Okay. I didn't plan on leaving in the first place. Is there some other stupid test I have to go through, or can I relax?"

Pan did that stupid eyebrow thing. "You're done... for the moment. Don't let your guard down, Squirt," he sneered before vanishing.

"Jeez, I was trying to be less abrasive," I muttered. "What's his problem?"

Felix laughed good-naturedly and swung an arm around me. "He's always like that. Come on, let's get some lunch. I think today it was Wildcat's turn to hunt."

"Why are you being so nice all of the sudden?"I asked suspiciously.

"Remember when I said we could be friends if I knew you were going to stay?" He grinned at me. "Well, now we can."

Somehow this, more than anything else, convinced me that I was really a Lost Girl. Felix had come across at first as someone who was intense on his best days, and a force of nature on his worst. While I knew from experience that half of that was true, it seemed like he only put on the "tough guy" act for outsiders. Of course, trusting him was probably a bad idea, but wasn't everything I'd done so far? I really wanted to believe I could have a friend on the island; a real one, who I didn't have to worry about stabbing me in the back just because Pan said to.

Again: bad idea, but who cared? No one ever said I was smart.

"I think that'll work out just fine," I told him, putting on my first real smile in days.

*~*~*

Apparently, there weren't any rules about who bunked with who. Actually, there weren't really rules about anything. So for the next few weeks, my days consisted of eating, sleeping in Felix's tent, training, hunting, and doing laundry when I started to smell too bad. It was refreshing, but I didn't remember why. The only one really willing to listen to me whine about my amnesia was Felix.

"It's just so frustrating," I groaned one afternoon, throwing myself on the ground childishly.

Felix just hummed understandingly, paying attention but preoccupied with his food. He knew better than to try and respond when I got like this, even if he wasn't as afraid of a female temper as the other boys. If anyone approached me when I was like this, I was liable to explode. Over the past few months, Felix and I had gotten scarily close; he'd really become like an older brother to me. If he hadn't, he'd probably be running for the hills right about now. Not that I would blame him.

"I don' no how merny terms I cud say I'm srry, Lily, but i' won do 'ny good c'mplnng about it," he said beofre swallowing. "If you'd let Pan--"

"Nope."

Felix sighed. "It would really help, I'm sure--"

"No, Felix. No magic."

"Alright, alright," he conceeded. "I won't push it anymore."

I nodded. I was well aware that Pan could most likely fix my memory, but I wasn't willing to let him. I still hadn't quite gotten over my fear of magic or my distrust of Pan. While I'd figured out that he wouldn't outright kill me, he obviously wasn't at all thrilled about my being a Lost One anyway. Allowing him to dig through my head would take a lot more than not killing me, which would usually count as basic human nature. But did any of that apply on Neverland? Did it apply to Pan himself?

"You're thinking too hard again," Felix scolded. "Deep thoughts are something you do when you're about to go to sleep, not when you're sharing a meal with the most awesome person on Neverland."

"So sorry, your highness." I smirked.

Felix made a noncommital sound. "Just be sure it doesn't happen again."

 We just stayed like that, joking around for a while while we ate. The conversation went something like this:

"Get me food, slave!"

"Get your own damn, food, sir."

"And why should I when you're so much closer?"

"Because you're a gentleman and I'm a respectable lady." Burp.

"Respectable lady, my ass."

"True enough."

"But seriously, I'm still hungry."

"Too bad."

He stuck his tongue out at me and I laughed, relenting and grabbing another rib of meat out of the fire. 

*~*~*

Darkness. Just darkness. As much as I screamed and clawed and struggled, it just got more and more crushing and suffocating. I screamed again--

"Lily. Lily, sweetheart, wake up. You're having another nightmare." A warm pressure landed on my shoulder. A hand.

 Felix. My eyes snapped open and I sat up, breathing hard. He looked at me from his own cot, tired but worried. "You alright, Lil?"

I took a deep, shuddering breath and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Come here," he muttered, not believing me for a sceond. He knew me too well. I moved closer to his bed and he swung and arm over me. "You're safe here. Remember that," he said before falling back asleep.

And for once, I did too.

A/N PLEASE READ: Just to clarify, she and Felix have NOTHING going on. That said, I decided that I needed to build up the relationship between them in order for Felix to have any real meaning to the plot, and believe me when I say that he DOES. I love Felix and I think that he deserves a little happiness in his life, so why not give him a little sister to take care of?  Again, just to be clear, THERE IS NO ROMANTIC INVOLVEMENT BETWEEN FELIX AND LILY. He calls her "sweetheart" because it's a quirk I gave him. I call everyone sweetheart, and I thought it would be fun to make him do the same to Lily. In order to build up the plot, the fluff was necessary. I like the fluff. The fluff is fun to write. So yeah. I'll have the next chapter up in a week or two.