Innocence (OUAT/Peter Pan)

Chapter 8: Home

Well, she really didn’t want to remember it in any more detail than necessary, but after an hour of taunting and coaxing from Pan, she finally skinned, and cleaned, and cooked, and ate both squirrels. She did feel a flutter in her chest when he complimented how well she did, and then she frowned when she realized he was complimenting how well she killed something.

            Still, she managed it. And it tasted good. And Pan was right, she lived on the island now and didn’t really want to leave so she had to learn to live. She ate it at sundown, when the boys began to return. She grinned when a few actually noticed and complimented it; again, it was tainted by the fact that it was over hunting a little animal, but she took it as a sign of acceptance. Perhaps they’d slowly be less distant. She didn’t need a dozen or so new brothers, but, if she was going to stay, she didn’t want to feel like she was intruding.

            She sat at the fire next to Felix, a little away from the other boys. He liked to sit with some space, it was a sign of his authority. Pan didn’t eat with them at all, just materialized around at random places and picked off the boys’ plates playfully.

            “Are they alright with me? Me being here, I mean?” she murmured to Felix, unable to make her voice above a whisper due to the apprehension. He quirked an eyebrow at her.

            “Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked around the food he was shoveling into his mouth. She giggled, they all ate like such…well, boys. She looked down. “Aw come on, Princess, you’re not betraying us, or getting in the way of their games. You’re no threat whatsoever, you’re not annoyingly girly or princess-y, and you’re a pretty girl,” she winked teasingly, “you’re fine.”

            “They never talk to me…” she trailed. Aloud, it didn’t sound like such a bad thing.

            He leaned closer to her, grinning mischievously. More teasing secrecy. She rolled her eyes but leaned in. “They aren’t used to you, none of us are. Even Pan, and he’s always used to everything. You throw him off, so you throw us all off. We’re all boys, girls are…well,” he shook his head, chuckling, “foreign territory. Sometimes, you even speak a foreign language,” he teased.

            “Actually, I speak six languages,” she giggled to herself. He heard, and choked on the handful of berries he’d just tossed into his mouth.

            “Damn, Princess, aren’t you smart,” he chuckled. She looked down. “What do you speak?”

            “I had a lot of time to study them, trust me, there was little else to do. I speak Thai, Portuguese, Greek, Italian, French, Japanese. And I can read and write Latin, Arabic, and Thai as well,” she said quietly.

            He let out a low whistle. “What’s my name in Arabic?” he grinned. She smiled and wrote it out in the dirt and he studied it, as if trying to remember it.

            “Can you read? Or write?” she frowned at him, he’d been left on the streets as a child. When would he have ever learned? His jaw hardened and he looked away, shoveling more food into his mouth. That answered her question. She grinned. “I’ll teach you to,” his head whipped around, eyes wide, “if you help me improve my hunting…and my stomach for it. Pan had to half carry me back. Embarrassing,” she finished with a cough, but felt an odd warmth on her face. Felix started laughing.

            “Princess, you’re blushing,” he forced out. “At Pan carrying you? Why, how unladylike,” he mocked. She’d never blushed before in her life. Her face flushed when she was angry, but never in embarrassment or…or whatever else Felix thought was funny.