The Shadow's Keeper ~OUAT Peter Panfiction (Book 2)

Chambers

         "Look at them go," the keeper spoke bitterly, glaring at the two wanderers. Pan and Anne were obscured in another tree, observing as Anwen would worriedly look around, nursing a feverish Benjamin by a river. She couldn't see them but she had a feeling they were watching. "I would've had them both if it wasn't for your little diversion." He irritably mumbled.

        Anne shied away behind him, deeply blushing. She loosened her grip on his lower back, having been resting against him since they landed from another flight. "What I'm dying to know is why—why you had to go and intrude when I distinctly told you to stay put. Was I not threatening enough?" He inquired rhetorically.

        Anne then buried her lips into the back of his shoulder, unyielding to speak. She was far too timid. "I'm sorry," she mumbled sheepishly in spite of herself.

        "Does apologizing help the situation now?" He reminded. Anne reflected back on that small policy coming to realization that it didn't. Apologizing had never got her anywhere she wanted to be, what made her think it could now? And that realization sewed her lips shut.

"Don't think I'm about to let you get away without explaining yourself, my little Anna," he interjected into her thoughts with a fatherly defiance that made her feel like a little kid again. She huffed like one in response, propping her chin onto his shoulder.

        "I saw a spider," she lied. "I swear it was the hugest thing!" She enthused.

        Peter scoffed in disbelief, "you're such a liar."

        Anne angrily clenched her jaw, preventing herself from saying the first words that popped into her head. Like you have the room to talk...she thought to herself. Instead of saying anything more, she kept quiet and followed the direction of Peter's eyes. She studied Anwen in her form for some moments, unable to help imagining nursing Benjamin herself. The thought relaxed her, softening her anger toward Pan. "Who is she?" she suddenly asked.

        "A very special friend of mine." Anne became addled. "She's covering for you," he explained further.

        "You mean...everyone thinks she's me?"

        "Potentially, yes," he replied, lifting an annoyed brow.

        Anne thought to herself for some moments. She continued to watch the two wanderers when they got up. Anwen helped him to a stand with a cautious look on her face. "Why is she protecting him?" Anne then lifted a brow.

        Peter breathed shakily, struggling to relax. Anne watched him in slight alarm but wasn't about to shy away, compelled by her curiosity to stay right in place. "Are we going to go down there??" She then asked.

        "No," he cooled, "we've got better business to attend to, our own." Without allowing further clarification, he tightened his hold on Anne's arms and lifted from inside the tree.

        

        Surprised by the hastened return to the cave, Anne was clumsily dropped onto the dusty ground. She scrambled to her feet, breathlessly collecting herself. "Hey! Gentle!" She complained, wiping dirt off her arms and pants.

        "You never crushed Felix's heart, did you??" He spat intensely as his eyes flared, challenging his lost girl.  

        Anne's face drained of color and her throat tightened in realization. Pan had dropped her because he had managed to figure it out. "How'd you..." she struggled to choke up.

        "You made it blankly obvious! That cute little distraction of yours was to keep me from crushing Benjamin's heart, and you weren't even going to be the one to do it—that's when I realized. If you couldn't let me crush an irrelevant, helpless little lost boy's heart you sure as hell didn't have the guts to crush your own brother's heart!" He exclaimed, evidently infuriated.